"Stay away from ghosts and gods" is a sentence in The Analects of Confucius, and it is Confucius' answer when he was seeking knowledge in Fan Chi. Fan Chi, who has appeared in The Analects of Confucius many times, is eager for knowledge and benevolence, which shows that this classmate is also a very studious person. But every time he asked Confucius, he got a different answer, very "like Confucius". Because Confucius always gives the best answer according to different people, different situations and different things, to understand the sentence "respect ghosts and gods", we must first understand the dialogue environment from the original text, and then explain it.

Fan Chi asked.

Fan Chi asked. Confucius said, "It can be said that people are famous for serving the people and worshiping ghosts and gods." Asked Ren: "The benevolent is rare first, and then it can be called benevolent." -The Analects of Confucius

"Knowledge" leads to "wisdom". Knowledge is not knowledge, but knowledge. Fan Chi asked Confucius: What is true wisdom?

What is wisdom can include many aspects. This time, Confucius' answer was biased towards politics. He said, "Serve the people's interests and respect ghosts and gods."

Service is service, and serving the people is leadership. Confucius means that to be an official and engage in politics, you should serve the people well and not do what God says. You should "stay away from ghosts and gods", which is political wisdom.

FanChi

Why did Confucius answer Fan Chi's question from the angle of "politics"?

Fan Chi, a person who was not particularly well-born, was a child who grew up in misery. Confucius commented on Fan Chi: "The villain is good and Xu Fan is good." Little people are not traitors in the present sense, but people living at the bottom.

Confucius taught people like Fan Chi some practical principles. Confucius said, "If you study well, you will be an official." What should Fan Chi do if he is engaged in his career in the future? This is Confucius' answer.

Keep an amazing distance from sb.

Confucius believed in ghosts and gods. "Confucius doesn't talk about the chaos in Machamp" doesn't mean that Confucius doesn't believe in ghosts and gods, but that in education, we should take the gentleman's way as the standard and not worship ghosts and gods, otherwise it will be restricted by ghosts and gods.

Similarly, if you are in politics and want to serve the people (or be in power), how should you guide the people? It's simple. If you want to believe in ghosts and gods, you must respect them, but you should not be addicted to them or superstitious.

Because ghosts and gods are too far away from us, the so-called people and gods have their own ways. Ghosts and gods are heaven, but we take humanity. "Heaven is far away and humanity is close." The heaven of ghosts and gods is far away from us. Humanity is very close to us, because each of us lives in humanity, and everything you experience, such as doing business, going to school, getting married, socializing ... is a part of human beings.

This is the way leaders guide the people. Ghosts and gods are far away from us. We should respect them, but we should not be superstitious about them. What we should do more is to do our own work well. If we are farmers, we should cultivate the land well. If we are emperors, we must govern the country well.

If you can do this, you will be a wise leader.

ghosts and gods

There are many explanations about ghosts and gods.

In ancient times, those great gods were all from man to god, and man could find a ladder to communicate with god. Jiang Ziya can also seal the gods; Later, the ghosts and gods created by people in literary works, such as the Monkey King and Zhu Bajie, are another kind; And the god brought by religion.

For ordinary people, there are only three kinds of ghosts and gods: total unbelief, belief in existence and superstition.

In the case of Confucianism and Confucius, we should teach people to believe in existence; Put an end to the third kind: superstition.

Confucianism has great respect for ghosts and gods. Why sacrifice ancestors? Because the ancients believed that after death, only the body died, and the soul still existed and became a god or a ghost. Why is sacrifice a kind of etiquette and sacrifice, which has been written into the Confucian classic Book of Rites?

Confucianism's respect for ghosts and gods is reflected in the sacrificial ceremony-"The sacrificial ceremony is more respectful, and if it is insufficient, it is more respectful." This is to limit "believing in ghosts and gods" to a reasonable range, which in turn is superstition.

Therefore, Confucius' answer to Fan Chi is to hope that leaders will treat ghosts and gods in a reasonable way when serving or governing the people.

Finally, please don't look at the thoughts of the ancients with today's eyes, otherwise, this discussion will be meaningless.