According to legend, Confucius recruited more than 3, disciples before and after, and among them, more than 7 (some say 77, some say 72) were considered excellent in character. Confucius himself listed a list of disciples who were later called "four subjects and ten philosophers", and ten of them were the best among the best. Fan Xu, also known as Fan Chi, failed to rank among the "Four Subjects and Ten Philosophers" because he joined Confucius after he returned to Lu after traveling around the world. But judging from his close relationship with Confucius in The Analects of Confucius, Fan Chi was a disciple appreciated by Confucius. Therefore, it belongs to one of more than 7 outstanding scholars.

Even so, Fan Chi was rudely reprimanded by Confucius. Literally, the harshness of the reprimand is even worse than that of the "rotten wood can't be carved" and "the wall of dirt can't be carved". "Rotten wood" and "dirt" are only figurative expressions, but it is the antonym of "gentleman" that reprimands Fan Chi, and he is the "villain" that Confucius despised most. The cause of the incident was that Fan Chi wanted to learn agricultural technology. First, Confucius said that he wanted to learn to grow food. He was surprised and told him euphemistically, "I am not as good as an old farmer." Then, Fan Chi said that he wanted to learn to grow vegetables. At this time, Confucius was probably a little angry and told him, "I am not as good as a vegetable farmer." After Fan Chi left, Confucius was very angry and called him a "villain".

Fan Chi wanted to learn agricultural technology. Why did Confucius call him a villain? This is because, according to Confucius, under the current situation, if the rulers were taught to respect rites and music, pay attention to morality and abide by credit, people from all over the world would come to take refuge, and there was no need to learn to grow crops and vegetables. In other words, the purpose of running a school by Confucius is to cultivate managerial talents who spread the thoughts of governing the country such as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith to the rulers, not to carry out vocational and technical education and cultivate specialized technical talents, not to mention farmers. So, why does Fan Chi want to learn to grow food and vegetables? Liu Baonan, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, put forward an explanation: because in the Spring and Autumn Period, Dr. Qing carried out the hereditary system, the election system for selecting talents was abandoned; Most talented people have no positions, so they have no salary, can't support their families, and can only find their own way to survive. Qian Mu, a modern scholar, put forward another explanation, saying that Fan Chi wanted to follow the example of Shennong and Hou Ji, that is, to gain people's support by mastering agricultural technology and spreading it to the people, and finally achieve the goal of educating the people.

both of these explanations have some truth. However, judging from Confucius' words, the direct reason why Fan Chi studied crops and nurseries was to solve the problem of insufficient labor force. The Spring and Autumn Period is a military period, with frequent wars, constant wars, a sharp drop in population, and a large amount of land left uncultivated, resulting in a serious problem of insufficient food. Fan Chi's solution is for intellectuals to put themselves down and engage in agricultural labor. It's a bit like letting young intellectuals go to the countryside, intellectuals go to cadre schools and go to the countryside to engage in agricultural labor. Confucius' solution is to attract people from abroad, increase the population and solve the labor problem by improving the political environment. Fan Chi's method has a high ideological level, but it does not meet the standards of pragmatism, which is equivalent to turning himself into a manual worker and can only solve the problem of one person or one family; Confucius' method is actually to join the ruling class, with the aim of solving a country's food problem. Speaking of it, Confucius' pursuit is quite high.

Fan Chi was only impulsive, so he thought about it for a moment and didn't stick to the road of "saving the world through agriculture". That is to say, I still accepted the teacher's opinion. Therefore, in addition to being called a villain by Confucius this time, Fan Chi recorded in The Analects of Confucius is a disciple of the law. He asked Confucius questions such as "knowledge (wisdom)" and "benevolence", among which the question of "benevolence" was asked three times, and Confucius patiently answered it. One day, when I was traveling with my teacher to pray for rain, I asked Confucius what it meant to "respect morality, cultivate morality and distinguish confusion" and was praised by Confucius. On another occasion, Fan Chi drove a car to Confucius, and Confucius volunteered to tell him how he answered Meng Yizi's question about filial piety and explained it.

Su Dongpo, who likes to joke, gave Confucius the following words: "There are many gentlemen", and made fun of Qin Guan Qin Shaoyou with a long beard (Qin Shaoyou, who is good at lyric, is a beard, which is a bit unexpected). A well-behaved Confucius disciple was firmly remembered by later generations because he asked Confucius a wonderful question and because his name was interesting. However, few people know that he can remain calm and brave in times of crisis. From Fan Chi's story, I can't help feeling that people's reputation behind them is really unpredictable!