a version of the good life
There was a photograph of a queue on the front page of the Chinese papers last Sunday. People were queuing for places at a talk by a professor from mainland China who is famous for her self-help manual based on Confucius's Analects. It's been on the bestseller charts of major bookshops in China for quite some time now.
Her name is Yu Dan and the book is called Yu Dan "Lun Yu" Xin De (Yu Dan's Thoughts On The Analects - please pardon the clumsy translation). She gave two talks last Saturday and they were both phenomenally popular (the talk at the auditorium in the newspaper's office building had to be telecast to two other rooms in the building because there were too many people and not enough seats for them).
Out of curiosity, I bought her book that evening and started reading it.
I can understand the appeal of the book. It unpacks the pithy teachings of Confucius for the reader in a clear and accessible style. There are interesting anecdotes and stories from other sources, and the variety plays a not insignificant role, I think, in the professor's success. She quotes from Tagore, the British press, and Japanese writers, to pad the kernels she's carefully unearthed from the Analects. And she succeeds in giving these ancient Chinese moral lessons a new life. Confucius is no longer a sage with wispy beard on a distant cloud.
I have always been curious about Confucius - 'always' dates from the time I studied at a secondary school which prided itself on its Confucianism. Incidentally, the discipline master was also the teacher in charge of Confucian studies. He was the most feared person in that school. I guess that's probably why I didn't choose Confucian studies as my subject for Religious Knowledge. I thought it was best to minimize contact time with the discipline master since his interests extended beyond disseminating Confucianism to disciplining skirts (over the knees please!), the heights of socks (long and nerdy please!), and hairstyles (no gel! fringe must be above the eyebrows!).
According to Professor Yu Dan, a true gentleman or lady should be measured in his or her attitude towards the world and its affairs. There should not be extremes, one should not be extremely for or against something; there should not be polarities, either-or's, between the thick and thin, the near and far, the remote and the related. Everything comes under the governance of dao yi, the ethical, righteous and lawful. Dao yi should be the standard and the principle behind all thoughts and actions.
The discipline master was probably too extreme, too passionate, for Confucius' liking. I say this with sincere empathy. I am myself a creature of passion and the idea of being measured about EVERYTHING depresses me. I guess I don't have what it takes to lead a good life according to Confucius.
Her name is Yu Dan and the book is called Yu Dan "Lun Yu" Xin De (Yu Dan's Thoughts On The Analects - please pardon the clumsy translation). She gave two talks last Saturday and they were both phenomenally popular (the talk at the auditorium in the newspaper's office building had to be telecast to two other rooms in the building because there were too many people and not enough seats for them).
Out of curiosity, I bought her book that evening and started reading it.
I can understand the appeal of the book. It unpacks the pithy teachings of Confucius for the reader in a clear and accessible style. There are interesting anecdotes and stories from other sources, and the variety plays a not insignificant role, I think, in the professor's success. She quotes from Tagore, the British press, and Japanese writers, to pad the kernels she's carefully unearthed from the Analects. And she succeeds in giving these ancient Chinese moral lessons a new life. Confucius is no longer a sage with wispy beard on a distant cloud.
I have always been curious about Confucius - 'always' dates from the time I studied at a secondary school which prided itself on its Confucianism. Incidentally, the discipline master was also the teacher in charge of Confucian studies. He was the most feared person in that school. I guess that's probably why I didn't choose Confucian studies as my subject for Religious Knowledge. I thought it was best to minimize contact time with the discipline master since his interests extended beyond disseminating Confucianism to disciplining skirts (over the knees please!), the heights of socks (long and nerdy please!), and hairstyles (no gel! fringe must be above the eyebrows!).
According to Professor Yu Dan, a true gentleman or lady should be measured in his or her attitude towards the world and its affairs. There should not be extremes, one should not be extremely for or against something; there should not be polarities, either-or's, between the thick and thin, the near and far, the remote and the related. Everything comes under the governance of dao yi, the ethical, righteous and lawful. Dao yi should be the standard and the principle behind all thoughts and actions.
The discipline master was probably too extreme, too passionate, for Confucius' liking. I say this with sincere empathy. I am myself a creature of passion and the idea of being measured about EVERYTHING depresses me. I guess I don't have what it takes to lead a good life according to Confucius.
Labels: books
posted by wheyface at 10:43 PM
4 Comments:
yes. EVERYTHING despresses you. of course, you are lindai.-TOHA
bu da bu xiao. but i guess that's also why you are rolex...
Come to think of it, I reckon I was three levels above and 200m away from Yu Dan that day if it was the same newspaper building.
I took Bible Knowledge during secondary school, and the teacher was the discipline mistress. What is it with discipline and religion?
Show me a measured man or woman, and I'll show you his or her many lifetimes' worth of "What ifs", "What it should have beens" and "Why didn't Is".
Confucius says that the measured person must first of all be at peace with being measured. It's a difficult peace! And the calm of being as measured as a mountain-face afterwards - that's the reward.
Mountain-face not very human, hor?
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