Confucius: Thought Clashes & Cultural Echoes-国内组-霍泳舟

时间：2025-12-24 11:15

 Confucius, who is known as one of the most outstanding and influential ideologists and politicians of China and even the whole world, is such a knowledgeable and thoughtful person who has deeply affected all the scholars in later ages. His speeches were recorded in the Lunyu, or The Analects by his students. While reading his theories, we can find some contradictions that not only reflect on himself but also exist on scholars after time. And even today, these big question marks can also bring us into deep thoughts.
  The first and most obvious one is about whether to be a hardworking official or a free recluse. This is a question of responsibility and freedom. Confucius answers are very complex. He once said "If the Way prevails in the world, one should come forward; if the Way does not prevail, one should withdraw into seclusion (天下有道则见,无道则隐)", which shows his positive attitude to the recluses. But meanwhile, he also argued that the way to be a great man should be "When one has mastered learning, one should enter public service (学而优则仕)." This sentence regards being an official and working for the public as the aim of learning and obviously stresses the importance of being an official.
  These words make the first contradiction. Which one matters more, public responsibility or personal freedom? Between them, the Confucianists choose the former and the Taoists choose the latter, forming two main thoughts of Chinese society. But neither of these two can exist alone since they can transform one another because of complex reasons. Confucius is a typical example, who let them exist together in his mind. Even if the responsibility is more obvious most times, the freedom never vanishes. And this can also be seen in his own life. Confucius had a great hope for a better world and he was always sparing no effort to achieve it by advising the feudal lords to rule their lands following his theory. However, he seldom succeeded. After decades of fighting, he also felt tired or even disappointed. During the civil war of the Lu State, he chose to leave the political world and put more effort into education. This time he left, giving up his hope on politics. He changed his way and became an educationalist. This can be seen as a way to jump out of the political world to find another way to save the public.
   But to be honest, everyone is willing to have a free and relaxing life. Confucius once asked his students about their future dreams. His student Zengxi answered that "In late spring, when spring clothes have been made, I would, in the company of five or six grown- ups and six or seven boys, go bathing in the Yi River, enjoy the breeze on the Wuyu Terrace, and then return home singing (暮春者,春服既成,冠者五六人,童子六七人,浴乎沂,风乎舞雩,咏而归)." It describes a relaxing lifestyle and a reclusive life, which is quite different from the traditional Confucian life. However , Confucius didn't blame him, but answered with agreement (吾与点也). This shows that even the Confucius wants a life full of joy and beauty. For him, having this kind of life is just like an intangible dream. He must force himself to take up the responsibility of saving the public. This great man is not only one person, but also an immortal national character.
  Finishing talking about the first contradiction, the second one immediately comes. This one has to do with equality and hierarchy. One of Confucius's main theories is to restore the rites of the Zhou Dynasty, which accented the importance of social hierarchy. He once said that "There are five types of people: the mediocre, the learned, the gentleman, the worthy, and the sage. Understanding these five types encompasses the essence of governance (人有五仪,有庸人,有士人,有君子,有贤人,有圣人.审此五者,则治道毕矣)." This is a typical thought of aristocracy society, which advocates the necessity of hierarchy. Usually, these kinds of noble thoughts may grow into a very unfair society, which offers more opportunities to the upper class, such as noblemen or great families. However, Confucius bought another solution: "Instruction knows no class distinction"(有教无类)." He encouraged everyone to become a better one through education instead of hierarchy power.
  These two theories can partly explain Confucius's hope, however, things usually go wrong. And we can see this through the Imperial Examination System (科举制度), which is the maturest form of testing ways in past China. It provides an equal opportunity for every student to get an official place by using the same test paper to test the students' knowledge. But the most important problem is WHO can evaluate students' knowledge? Maybe Confucius can, but what if there isn't a man like him? So this easily results in the appearance of specific rules, which may probably bring rigidity.
Confucius also saw this problem, and he said that "If all men hate a man, we must look carefully into the case. If all men like men, we must also look carefully into the case (众恶之,必察焉；众好之,必察焉)." He obviously showed his attitude to how to evaluate others.
  However, this attitude may easily fall into the experientialism, bringing more unfairness by evaluating others based on one's own preferences and flavour. For example, when evaluating a scientific article, if the reader dislikes this kind of topic, he or she may possibly lose the interest and this influences the impression of it. So, choosing between subjective judgments and objective rules is such a contradictory thing. And this comes to the second contradiction, which has a higher level, involving the philosophical problem. How to find the better person, by experience or rules? This is also a contradiction between experientialism (经验主义) and dogmatism (教条主义). It's a problem that has lasted for centuries and still has its value even now. It still needs to be weighed not only when choosing the officials or students, but also in our everyday decisions.
  Now the heart of Confucius is asking the third and the most familiar contradiction: nationalism or internationalism. Confucius is known for his strong national thoughts such as Honor the King and Repel the Barbarians (尊王攘夷), which was written in his book Chunqiu, or the Spring and Autumn Annals. He thought that the Central Plains'(中原) culture is much better than that of barbarians. It sounds like a very narrow nationalism's opinion. He even said that "Even if the barbarian tribes have their rulers, they are still inferior to the states of the Central Plains even when lacking a ruler.(夷狄之有君,不如诸夏之亡也)." It's such an unbelievable idea for us who live in this modern life. Maybe I should say in another word, he thought the culture of the Central Plains is deeper and greater than others.
  But meanwhile, Confucius had also held a positive attitude toward different cultures, which seems to be against himself. One of his most famous words is "The gentleman seeks harmony but not uniformity; the petty person seeks uniformity but not harmony (君子和而不同,小人同而不和).", speaking highly of the virtue of including and respecting multiple cultures and thoughts. In fact, Confucius is not a real crazy nationalist who places himself at a higher level when communicating with foreign countries. Although there isn't any direct sentence in Lunyu describing the international relations, which is mainly related to the immature sense of specific concept of a country in modern determination, Confucius also showed his attitude through some sentences about the interpersonal relations. Take his most famous words as an example, he wrote that "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others (己所不欲,勿施于人)." This sentence is hanging in the UN, being seen as the best way to deal with international relations. We can guess that if Confucius was a ruler of a state, he would have treated other states with respect, like treating his friends or even a stranger who had different thoughts.
  So, what leads to this confusing contradiction? I have to say it's not Confucius's fault since the concept of China in real sense had not already formed at that time. Confucius admired "foreign" cultures and thoughts and showed no biases to them. However, facing the need of everyone's great will to the Great Unity, he must find a way to overcome the differences between different states and this way is culture. So he stressed the authority of "culture of the Central Plains" to bring everyone together and become an united Huaxia nationality (华夏民族). This is the power of culture, a united culture.
  But now, the world is changing into a whole, which requires more cultural communications. The Confucianism needs a new explanation. While spreading in some Western countries, understanding is truly a problem that can't be ignored. What can we do? For example, when talking about the Benevolence (仁) in Confucianism culture, we can combine it with the concept of the Love (爱) in Christian culture to help people better understand it. In addition, as two main social thoughts, the Confucianism and the Christianity have quite a few similarities. Confucius wanted everyone to love each other and this is the basis of the Benevolence. It's interesting that in the Bible, there is also a very famous sentence that is "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (其次也相仿,就是要爱人如己)." What a similar thought our ancestors had! And this will help foreigners to understand better. In conclusion, the comparisons between similar concepts in different cultures can be great helpers.
  To help people to have a better understanding, I am going to explain deeper. As we all know, the world is an indivisible whole that connects not only market and economy, but also all the great thoughts, so let us make a comparison between Confucianism and Judeo-Christianity culture that have the same unignorable effect on Eastern and Western cultures. Just like we mentioned below, these two cultures show great similarity in their attitude to treating each other, showing that kindness is one part of the human nature. Moreover, both of them stress the importance of moral rules and laws. In Confucianism we need to follow the Wuchang (五常), while in Judeo-Christianity there exists a very similar concept named Decalogue (十诫). These two ones both describe what we should at least do to ourselves to be a good person, but we can notice that the former highlights the relationship between people but the latter just guide us what to do to deal with the connection between human beings and the God. So we can easily find out that Confucianism pays more attention to harmony in the real life while the Judeo-Christianity focus more on harmony between people and God, which is a typical example of cultures that take root in religious spirit. If the ideal form of ruling of the Confucianism is by morality (德治), the one in Judeo-Christianity is by God (or simply the Heaven).
  And if we talk to the God, I must mention the Nature (天) in the Confucianism. They both represent the highest and mightiest power in the world. But if you look into the Old Testament (旧约), you can see that the God maybe isn't a really kind one. He said that he is a jealous god. In addition, He punished the Egyptians seriously since they showed no respect to the Israelite. But in our mind, the Nature is quite a different one that means equality. And the God is a real person who has emotions and thoughts. However, the Nature seems to hold many more meanings. It is moral rules, natural laws and even fate. So, in conclusion, we can say that the God is the subjective personification which does things more like a real person instead of a judge, and the Nature is a more abstract and objective concept that has less communication with people. But we need to understand that every culture has been improving. In the New Testament (新约), the Christianity slowly replaced the Judaism and a new religious concept appeared. That was Jesus. If the God's idea was to love the Israelites, the Jesus and his followers was to love everyone. From this, the Christianity culture started to be a faith that is built on love instead of hatred. And then it became more similar to the Confucianism. So from this we can see that every culture will result in kindness. I believe that more foreign people can understand the Confucianism more clearly and, just like every excellent culture, the Confucianism can improve itself and give everyone, whether they are Chinese or not, great values again.
  The Confucianism has brought the whole Huaxia nationality together before, and I hope it can bring the whole world together in the later future.
  Confucius left us his wisdom and contradictions, which are both important. As for me, a middle school student, it's worth reading the classics of him and every great ideologist all around the world. Confucius in my eyes is much higher than himself since only thoughts bring the great. Seeing his contradictions, we should review ourselves and feel the strength and pain of them. Just like the German philosopher Hegel said, "Tragedy is the collision of goods (悲剧是善与善的冲突)."  Between these contradictions, these pain, Confucius formed his own tragedy, his own greatness. He was destined to live without big political success, but this decided his greatness of thoughts and education. Finally, I want to say to him: Thanks for your immortal thoughts, please rest from painful but great contradictions.