Confucius said, "A gentleman climbs the mountain, and a villain gives orders."

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1, Confucius said: "A gentleman is connected with virtue, and a villain is connected with tools."

2. Confucius said, "The more virtuous a gentleman is, the more virtuous a villain is."

To annotate ...

"Arrival" is a visit when it is said, and it is arrival when it is said.

Comment and analysis

The Analects of Confucius is a bibliography. Due to the departure from the context at that time and the many changes in the evolution of ancient Chinese, future generations will have a lot of confusion when understanding some quotations. Some puzzles are difficult to solve unless Confucius or the recorder of quotations comes forward in person. This chapter is an example. Because the semantics of "gentleman" and "villain", "da" and "fa" are unclear, this chapter has been interpreted differently. According to the different meanings of "gentleman" and "villain", this chapter can have the following two solutions.

First, use "gentleman" and "villain" to distinguish "Tao" from "non-Tao". Similar usage, such as the Book of Rites, "A gentleman's lover is also virtuous, and a gentleman's lover is also tolerant." At this time, "gentleman" and "villain" are only an objective classification of the two types of value holders, and there is no need to deliberately praise or criticize them.

The Book of Changes says: "The metaphysical is the Tao; Matter is called equipment; Change and cut is called change; Push, say it; The person who is wrong in the world is the cause. " Metaphysics is abstract, while metaphysics is concrete. "Tao" is "abstract", so its meaning is endless; "Qi" is concrete, so its use is limited. The expression of any language and writing is bound to be limited because the Tao becomes concrete, thus breaking away from its changeable nature and thus losing its universality and eternity as truth. Therefore, Lao Tzu said, "Tao can be Tao, but not constant Tao;" Names can be named, not constant names. "The old road is the foundation, and the device is the purpose; Tao is the body, and the device is used. This is the top and finally the bottom. So "Da" refers to the meaning of "Tao" and "Fa" refers to the use of "Qi". The so-called "artisan spirit" in modern times is an embodiment of "giving orders".

What needs special explanation here is that the "device" of "physics" includes both "things" with physical entities and "technology" without physical entities. For example, concepts or methods such as system, law, science and technology are all "tools" because they are solidified through language or other forms of expression. In the chapter "Fan Chi invites farmers to learn from crops" (see reading of the analects of confucius 13.4), the skill of cultivating crops is "utensil", so "old farmer" and "old nursery" are examples of "little people giving orders". Confucius advocated that "a gentleman is not a tool", that is, a gentleman should seek "achievement" instead of "releasing" tools. Therefore, when "Fan Chi invited to learn about crops", Confucius said that he was a "villain", which meant that he had not yet been enlightened.

"A gentleman climbs a mountain" because "a gentleman does things as the foundation", while "climbing a mountain" is the foundation and "making progress" is the purpose. Only by "reaching" the meaning of Tao can we "tailor-made" and "release" Tao flexibly for the use of tools, and the way of benevolence and righteousness can be "pushed and acted" in society and "the world that makes mistakes". Therefore, only by "reaching" can we "make art by Tao" and let "hair" play a more appropriate and effective role.

If you don't seek to "reach" the Tao, but specialize in "hair", it is to give up the root and chase the end. Even if its "things" are refined and its "skills" are skillful, it is difficult to get along with. For example, the Legalist school takes the legal system as the core, specializes in the "cleverness" of "law, situation and technique", and gives orders to autocracy. This is a typical villain's way. Xia Zi, a student of Confucius, tends to be legalist, so Confucius warned him that "you are a gentleman's scholar, and you are a villain's scholar", so that Xia Zi, who was still young at that time, first sought to "reach the Tao". Because autocracy is inhuman, the people of China have suffered from autocracy since the Qin Dynasty, and it has been more than two thousand years. Although democracy is more reasonable than autocracy, if democratic politicians can't "reach the Tao", they still can't play the advantages of democracy continuously and effectively. This is the reason why democratic countries face all kinds of political disadvantages that are difficult to solve.

It is difficult to achieve, but it is easy to release. Therefore, any utilitarian society is inevitably pursuing "distribution". As a result, politicians play with power, businessmen play with money, lawyers play with lawsuits, and scientists play with technology, which has become a common phenomenon in society. However, the history and reality of mankind have long proved that if we leave the blessing of "reaching", the deeper the degree of "giving", the greater the harm to society and the greater the threat to mankind. Therefore, "a gentleman climbs a mountain" must become the knowledge of a civilized society.

Second, "gentlemen" and "villains" have morality but no morality. At this point, the villain is derogatory. A gentleman is a man of virtue, with benevolence and shame; The villain is immoral and shameless. Therefore, the virtue of a gentleman will be brilliant, and the virtue of a villain will be humble. In other words, gentlemen are becoming more virtuous and villains are becoming more immoral. As for other explanations, such as "a gentleman achieves righteousness, a villain achieves wealth" and "a gentleman makes progress day by day, and a villain sinks day by day", although they are expressed in different ways, they are actually synonymous.

"The more virtuous a gentleman is, the more virtuous a villain is", which shows that a society where gentleman culture prevails will continuously improve its civilization. In a society where villain culture prevails, the degree of civilization will continue to decline. In recent decades, many social problems, such as food safety, ecological crisis, environmental disaster, corruption, lack of trust, moral decay and so on. , all show that a society with bad rituals can only lead to a great retrogression or even collapse of civilization. In today's increasingly globalized world, this retrogression of civilization will eventually cause a chain reaction around the world and bring irreparable disasters to the whole human society. Therefore, it is urgent for the whole world to revive the culture of rites and music and save the human crisis. How can a politician be careless here?

The above two solutions can be adopted. However, if carefully studied, the former solution can eventually cover the latter solution. Because if you don't understand the meaning of Tao and don't want to hurt your virtue, it's hard to be afraid, so the author tends to explain it first. As for readers, you can choose for yourself.