He saw the meaning of human existence in the affirmation in the Celestial Empire of a higher and universal form of the socio-ethical order of the "Tao", or path. The main manifestations of the Tao, he considered humanity, justice, self-esteem, sons respect, loyalty and mercy. This article will focus on the sayings and aphorisms of Confucius.
Confucianism in China
In modern terms, we can say that Confucius is the main brand of China. After all, the self-identification of the people is associated with the choice of a person who represents him as accurately and vividly as possible. This is actually not such a simple question. On a solid and vast Chinese foundation from the most ancient historical and philosophical thought of the world stands the figure of Confucius, the wisdom of aphorisms and teachings which really deserves veneration.
Personality
As mentioned in “Historical Notes” by Sima Qian, an ancient Chinese historian and encyclopedist, Confucius was born in a “wild marriage”. Such a concept as “wild marriage” means that the parent in his advanced years allowed himself a connection with a young concubine. His father died, and Confucius was brought up in an incomplete family. He became the first Chinese teacher to teach everyone for a bunch of dried meat. So, the school replaced him with a related association. His very name Kung Fu Tzu (in Chinese) speaks of his calling, because "fu-tzu" is translated as "teacher, sage, philosopher."
Confucius lived in an era of fragmentation and struggle of many kingdoms. The age is not simple, but it is noteworthy, and therefore was called the golden age of Chinese philosophy. In China, becoming a philosopher means becoming a teacher and getting a school. Confucius traveled to different countries with his students and offered his services of state management - now this is called management. His activity is truly unique, its results greatly affected the life of society in the 6-5 centuries BC. Despite the innovative tendency of his teachings, Confucius insisted on returning to the roots, that is, on rethinking the knowledge already available.
good and evil
Confucius's sayings and aphorisms about good and evil should be studied.
As if confirming the wisdom of many religious movements and anticipating the Christian ideology, Confucius appeals to the reason and awareness of a person with the phrase: "Do not do to the other that you do not wish yourself." From century to century, this wisdom has been based on non-harm to others, since, as the people say, retribution for actions far from good will follow either inevitably, or over time, or will affect the lives of descendants. Performing some action, we send certain information to space, which creates a certain charge of energy, which overtakes us at a most unexpected moment by a boomerang. When we do good things, we attract the good things into our lives, and vice versa.
Speaking about Confucius' aphorisms about good and evil, one cannot fail to mention such a saying: “Try to be at least a little kinder, and then you will see that you will not be able to do a bad deed.” This expression can be interpreted as follows: once we embark on the path of goodness, we form in our head a block of rejection of all a conscious and developed person who is unworthy of behavior, which simply does not allow us to sink again, because we will betray ourselves. Having once tasted something better in our everyday life, we yearn for it with all our hearts, and we run from the old. This is how development takes place.
Confucius aphorisms about the meaning of life
“All life you can curse the darkness, but you can even light a small candle.” This statement of Confucius, an ancient thinker and philosopher, is imbued with the deepest wisdom. How often do we lose our guiding line, forget to look back at all the beautiful that is in us, in other people, our surroundings, and we are fixated on the negative side of life. It is enough to light in yourself a spark of one pleasant thought, as life begins to acquire new colors. Flourishing from the inside, we are transformed and externally, in the same way we influence others. So we ourselves create our own reality.
"Not the one who never fell, but the one who fell and stood up." This can be called one of the best aphorisms of Confucius. As accurately noted, any failure leads to success. “Fall” is useful and necessary if a person is able to learn a lesson. The height of our achievements is determined by the depth of the pit into which we fell. Every time, failing, defeating, rejoice - because you have where to grow, you are not a lost option for society and the planet, you still have to work on yourself.
"In fact, life is simple, but we persistently complicate it." And in fact, everything is complex - a veiled simple. Each complex subject can be disassembled into uncomplicated components, which helps to comprehend something complex. Having dealt with simple things, we are able to unravel something that previously seemed absurd to us. Another meaning of this statement lies in the fact that we are bored with things we understand, we need mystery, pretentiousness, some pathos and difficulty in performance. For example, the dishes are simple and the dishes are exquisite. Sometimes it is necessary to use remarkable abilities to reveal the ingredients of a phenomenon saturated with various spices and additives. So we move away from simple truth - simplicity leads to health, because healthy food is not always tasty (at first glance) food that has undergone a minimum of heat treatment. We are also served dishes that, in addition to various brines, could pass through a pot, pan, oven, only to get to your table. It would seem, why such tricks? Everything lies in the greed and gluttony of human nature, unable to enjoy the small for a long time.
Aphorisms of Confucius and their interpretation - about education
“The most beautiful sight in the world is the sight of a child who is confidently following the path of life after you have shown him the right path.” Many of us are still the very children who did not find their destiny. And all because we were raised by children, wandering in the dark. Yes, in life you need to be a child, but purposeful - so that your eyes burn and your hands do. Laziness and idleness lead to the destruction of personality. A true child is a creative being, ready at any time to do what he loves.
About the board
To Confucius’s aphorisms about the state, we attributed the following: “If you are overly zealous in the service, you can lose the sovereign’s disposition. If you are too welcoming in friendship, you will lose the friends’s disposition” We can say that this quote contains the idea that obsession and the desire to please everyone only repel. Do not try hard to please others. And is it worth striving to get the location of another person? Isn’t it easier and calmer to be yourself, without tricks and self-restraints? Do not be afraid to refuse people if their proposals contradict your principles and attitudes. So you, on the contrary, earn the respect of others as a person you can rely on in difficult times. Honesty with oneself leads to honesty with others. At some invisible level, people are able to feel whether they are flattering or not. And this largely shapes their further relationship with humans.
"If he himself is direct, then everything will be executed even without an order. And if he himself is not direct, then they will not obey, despite your order." A person who changes his mind, who has seven Fridays in a week, is not able to keep his persona as an authority for his subjects. Being unsure of himself, such a person may turn out to be unreliable in managing a country or household - he will squander everything until the rainy day with his conflicting ideas and infantile decisions. A person in leadership should be distinguished by directness of views and thoughts in order to convey them to the environment as accurately as possible.
"It is a shame to be poor and to have a low position if law reigns in the state; just as it is a shame to be noble and rich when lawlessness reigns in the state." This statement can be applied to absolutely any state, because now in the world there are not so many countries where noble people are in power, and the law is fair and humane.
About love
"Only a truly human person is capable of both loving and hating." In this statement of Confucius, we see that strong feelings, fully revealed, can be experienced by people who know how to empathize with others, compassion for them, who look at the world with an increased sense of justice. There is boundless love, and there is fair hatred. The rest may experience sublime and base feelings, but without fanaticism. Here, people who have departed from the habits of all animals that are familiar to all, learn righteous anger and love.
"Love is the beginning and end of our existence. Without love, there is no life. Because love is what a wise person worships." This is one of the most soulful quotes and aphorisms of Confucius about love. A person who rejects love is stupid, because, left without love, he loses motivation for activity, life, awakening in the morning. We must love, if not the people around us, then at least the things that surround us every day, otherwise life turns into utter chaos. And you can understand this as self-love. Only by loving oneself does a person begin to transform and improve, create and comprehend this world. Confucius, wise sayings, quotes and aphorisms which we consider in this article, was a wise and deep man. Therefore, all his sayings, falling into the field of vision of a developed person, flourish in the recipient's thought process.
“When the paths are not the same, do not make plans together” - this is one of Confucius’s most practical aphorisms about love, which hints that people with different life goals cannot combine their fates with favorable consequences. Only a single spirit of lovers is able to maximize the potential of each of them and as far as possible to advance them towards a common goal.
Oh happiness
“Eating coarse food, drinking spring water, sleeping with your own hand under your head,” is a special joy in all this. And wealth and nobility, acquired unrighteously, are like floating clouds for me! ” This is one of the most striking aphorisms of Confucius about happiness, which implies the search for bliss in the small and pious. Being satisfied with this little bit of comfort, a person can survive anywhere and anytime, without experiencing extreme deprivation, because he has not adapted to luxury. Abundance guarantees the degradation of the soul and body. And the wealth acquired by dishonesty generally destroys a person from within, devours him entirely, turning him into his most devoted slave, ready to take up adventures again and again to preserve illusory freedom from poverty. All these “floating clouds”, like dust, dissipate in difficult times or harm their owner, because he is attached to them with his whole soul, and, therefore, is ready to die for them.
Another pearl of Confucius’s aphorisms about happiness: “To learn and apply what you’ve learned at the right time - isn’t it wonderful! Talking with a friend who has come from distant lands isn’t it joyful! Is it not sublime it is not to be appreciated by the world and not to hold a grudge! ” Here we see that Confucius revered for happiness not only wisdom, not only humanity, but also uniqueness, isolation from the general mass of people, the ability to think individually and at the same time feel organic, not feel like an outcast, not complain about the world and society .
About work
The following was attributed to Confucius’s aphorisms about work: “He who repeats old knowledge and finds something new in it, that can be the leader.” The essence of this statement is that innovation can be shown only on the basis of previously known ideas. Nihilism, based on the denial of the mistakes of the past, is not appropriate here. The past is an instrument for sculpting the present and future of our state, as well as looking into the future, we can change the present. Using the occupations of his ancestors and extracting from them the seeds of truth, he is able to occupy leading positions in the state, because he knows the ancient secret of government.
“A human husband will not be in straitened circumstances for a long time, but he will also not be idle for a long time.” This is one of Confucius's aphorisms about work and laziness. Reading these lines, one immediately recalls Russian folk wisdom: "Cause is time, fun is hour." Here, however, there is some deviation from our usual image: with Confucius, a person does not exhaust himself with work and finds enough time for rest, that is, an hour for work, an hour for rest. Here we are talking about a balance in life, which is achieved by balancing all aspects of life. A good, pleasant job will not cause inconvenience and displeasure to the person who undertakes it. That is, finding a job to your liking, you can enjoy every moment as much as possible, without experiencing the pain and suffering from the feeling of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Character traits
Confucius, wise sayings, aphorisms and quotes which we consider in this article, according to his students, had an affectionate and good-natured disposition, was distinguished by patience and justice, his diet was always dominated by plant foods, although he did not shun meat. He was only excessive in guilt, reckoning him for the method of meditation, but he never reveled in unconsciousness. He was humble in speeches and in food, sharing the main and the secondary. Ginger has always been of great importance in his life, which is believed in China to neutralize the harmful effects of meat and intoxicating substances.
"The noble husband finds the causes of his failures in himself, and the vile finds them in others." This wonderful statement perfectly describes the lifestyle of people who are used to blaming anyone but all of their troubles. It’s not they who are lazy and lack of initiative, but the state undermines their “wings”, it’s not they who are weak-minded, and their parents “poorly educated”. Excuses can always be found. A truly strong-minded person is able to recognize his imperfection and seeks to change himself at all costs.
"When you meet a worthy person, think about becoming equal to him, and when you see an unworthy person, look into yourself." To notice the virtues of others is the whole art of life, because initially a person seeks faults in others. This property of an animal is to rise above others by finding their weaknesses, but humanity implies seeing God in another person through admiration for his creativity, skills and knowledge. Only a developed personality can see the divine principle in each person and help him to reveal this powerful power of creation.
"Nothing so easily excites a person and leads him to self-forgetfulness, which leads to the most devastating consequences, like flashes of frustration and anger, and therefore, to avoid great delusions, it is necessary to notice them in the bud." How much firewood can be broken, being in a bad mood! A person who does not know how to control his anger is not able to control his life.