Comments by Clay Burell

Comments by Clay Burell Most recent public comments by Clay Burell https://nowcomment.com/users/8992 @Uriah, back to the Self-Cultivation v. the Born Again self-abnegation: https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289292 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289292 The "unadorned background" stated as the necessary precondition to ritual self-cultivation intrigues. How can we interpret "adornment" as something to be "undone," without sounding like Baptists saying "you must be born again"? There's an overlap here, it seems clear, but I think it's only partial. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 His teacher-student relations were so excellent. Lucky to have them for more than a semester or year. My misfortune: to teach in the modern age. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289291 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289291 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 Both emphasize the ren above the ritual. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289290 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289290 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 I wish the Sumptuary Code institution was included in this text. See Xunzi, "On Ritual," for a good overview. In essence, wealth inequality was restrained through ritual limits on what each level of elite in the hierarchy could possess. Beyond was shame. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289289 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289289 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 Ren as touchstone. Even if one is doing Zhou ritual and listening to Zhou music, without ren, it's still barbaric. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289288 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289288 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 The Da Xue unpacks this very, very well. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289287 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289287 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 Insightful. Think of all the lone students of the internet--or even of canonical texts--unguided by teachers who can help them evaluate the soundness of all they read. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289286 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289286 And "to think without learning"--vague translation here--seems to point to those who celebrate "originality" and "creative, outside the box" thinking. I read the "without learning" as, more precisely, "without studying tradition's storehouse of thought." Go ahead, re-invent the wheel. Odds are, the original wheel is better-designed because generations of thinkers "learned" from earlier wheel-designers. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 By this definition, most 21st century "elites"--being "tools" of corporations--are not "gentlemen" or -women. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289284 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289284 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 PRC Connection: Pres. Xi Jinping seems to be trying to "keep [China's] past alive" by studying ancient Chinese philosophy--which is eminently *political*--with an eye to adapting it to "present" circumstances. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289282 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289282 Westerners are by and large (and predictably, given our conditioning by media and our cultural fondness for "universalizing" everything from religion to politics to economics to social norms) unsympathetic to the PRC's attempts to forge a "Chinese Way" in the 21st century. I'm not one of them. I don't see democracy offering evidence of wise statecraft, *or* of popular well-being. And taking the longer view, I see current events as China fighting to save its culture from disappearing into history, and being replaced by Western hedonistic individualism. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:45 -0400 9.3 is a great example. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289281 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289281 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Deeds, not words, not status. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289194 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289194 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 A challenge to us modern freedom of expression advocates. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289192 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289192 It brings the Confucian (and earlier) understanding of *music* as far more than the cheap view we have of it today as "entertainment." Here, the Odes are seen as *shaping* and guiding through their lyrics and music. Implicitly, because their music is "virtuous"--has positive "de"--it improves its audience. Compare to Justin Bieber, Anaconda, and the other pollutants filling the ears and hearts of the young today. There are depths here that complicate my views on censorship and "freedom of expression." At what cost? Especially if music *does* shape us? From this angle, "freedom of expression" advocates seem close, at the extreme, to arguing that we should also be "free" to pollute our water and air. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Interesting note. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289188 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289188 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 I see it a bit differently: Kongzi implies he *wants* students to challenge him--not "glibly," like debaters for the sake of winning arguments, but *sincerely* out of a love of wisdom. He further states Yan Hui seems "dim" for *not* doing this. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289186 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289186 Yet, when he *observes* Yan, he sees his wisdom. In practice. In action. In repose. Yan *lives* sagely, even if he's not a big talker. He learns and, back to 1.1, "in a *timely* fashion *applies* what he's learned." He walks the Way. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 This emphasis on keeping Mom and Dad *in* the family, until they pass, is one of Confucianism's greatest gifts to East Asia. I loved seeing three generations at meals, on door-stoops, in China, and love the same in SG. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289183 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289183 Life is richer when the elderly aren't hidden away in retirement homes. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 He's practiced the ritual "dance" for 55 years at this point. It's a report on the fruits of Self-Cultivation. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289180 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289180 Interesting to compare it to Buddhism's Noble Eightfold Path: both ethical "Ways," but the Confucian one is distinctively *engaged* in the world, through rites above all, and not *withdrawn* from it, the way Buddhist monasticism seems to me to be. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Simon Leys translates with, to me, a crucial difference: https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289178 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289178 2.3 The Master said: “Lead them by political maneuvers, restrain them with punishments: the people will become cunning and shameless. Lead them by virtue, restrain them with ritual: they will develop a sense of shame and a sense of participation.” That *sense of participation* is key, to me. Ritual, in the Chinese sense, is everyday activity to the most minute and trivial level. By definition, it is *social.* So that "sense of *participation* " implies that it inculcates a sense of valued, and pleasurable, *belonging* to the society as we improve our ritual style in the performance. Robert Eno's "The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery" goes into this *transformative* aspect of ritual brilliantly, and persuasively. Again, though, it can't be learned by *thinking* and *studying*--only by *doing* (or, as Eno puts it, *dancing.*) Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Have to disagree somewhat. The "Odes" were mostly folk songs of fairly simple construction. The complexities of Han to Tang poetry only began close to a thousand years later. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289173 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289173 But I'm struck by the emphasis on the Odes. I suspect most of us moderns are. They were songs, first of all--sung things, which means part of the lived culture--and they weren't in English translation. I wonder if--and doubt--I'll ever be able to penetrate the Odes in order to see what the Ruists (Confucians) saw in them. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Virtue--徳 (de)--as Pole Star makes sense to me. It's the path of self-cultivation that is self-confirming when we compare today to, say, a year ago. Better relations, easier harmony, etc. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289170 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289170 But note this is a *political* claim. "Trickle-down De." Now consider our current leaders all preaching economic growth and "national interest" in these terms. I know it's complex because we've broken from traditional agrarian cycles, but there *are* "sustainable economics" schools that align somewhat with this less materialistic vision of leadership. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 I see this as a demonstration of "wealth that is fond of ritual." Note they're not bored and needing to buy entertainment. They're taking joy in the cultivation of 文--wen--the cultured arts. (Here, reading literature.) https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289168 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289168 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 I like how he gives a positive description to improve upon Zigong's negative one. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289167 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289167 And the improvement? Poverty, if not extreme--basic needs met--does not preclude joy. And wealth, if combined with "fondness of ritual," does not lead to excesses of greed and material indulgence. Ritual is a) social and communal, and b) like musicianship, something you cannot buy, but that is far more enjoyable than anything you *can* buy. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 "Harmonious ease." Perhaps *the* key concept of the Confucian Dao. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289163 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289163 *Harmony* is not only peaceful, but beautiful--aesthetic. Ritual thus adds a *beautiful* peace. *Ease* is *wuwei*--"effortless"--and psychologically and practically, the fruit of ritual training. It becomes "second nature." Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 A key qualifier: ritual virtuosity (Ames' piercing phrase) *is* essential to self-cultivation. And that comes only through practice, not thinking. Daoists who slam it, unless they've walked it, cannot know what they're talking about. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289157 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289157 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Also evidence that Confucianism is not about blind "rule-following" at all, which is another common Western misconception. We'll see Kongzi challenge some traditions, defending others, all based on higher standards that are basically humanistic, rational. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289127 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289127 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Socrates' antagonistic manner in his legal defense (Plato's Apology) was the polar opposite of Confucius' way of interacting with others. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289126 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289126 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Note that "study" of texts and arts comes *second* to *practice* of ethical mindfulness. Further challenges our Western misconception of Confucian education as "book-learning." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289123 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289123 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Da Xue on NowComment: http://nowcomment.com/documents/28676#.VEfB0ecUqrM https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289118 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289118 "Refining the Person" is the ultimate key, in my reading. Which sounds like a synonym for "Self-Cultivation." Beautiful, short text that was given "Classic" status in the Song Dynasty. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 This is Youzi, not Kongzi, again. Still not sure how much this matters, but... https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289113 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289113 The "root" seems less simple than "filiality and brotherly respect." The Da Xue ("Great Learning") expands the concept to include the self, the heart-mind, the will and intention, sincerity, mental balance, understanding of things, a harmonious household, and a few remaining concepts in its "Eight Stages" of the Great Learning. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Yes, "-zi" is "Master." Teacher, in more demotic language. An honorific. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289085 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289085 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Without disagreeing, I also see positive consolations in the first two lines: the self-cultivation is "a joy," and the pursuit of it with a community of "friends" likewise. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289073 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289073 Though yes, there was sadness too, that the world suffered from its deafness and blindness to the teachings. (To challenge both of us, it's interesting to read Mozi's, Laozi's, and Shang Yang's attacks on these Erudite Ru-ists as condescending and elitist. Even if Kongzi was *not* like that, what's his answer to minimizing the danger identified by his opponenents?) Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 And I'd put "de" before "wuwei." They're both at play, but "de" is what attracts without coercion. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289016 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289016 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Close reading at its best. I'm *your* student here. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289014 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289014 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 Uriah, your insight elsewhere about Confucianism's "start where you are, and grow from there in wisdom and pleasure", rather than the "be born again, because the Old You is defective" (and I paraphrase you correctly, I hope), is so very á propos. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289013 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289013 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:44 -0400 And unrelated to deadening your soul in order to be a) a know-it-all; and b) an employee at some job where you're a tool for a salary. :) https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289001 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=289001 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Zengzi seems to emphasize ritual and filiality: funerals and ancestor rites. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288595 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288595 The inclusion of that *distant* ancestors detail is interesting. The longer back your sense of family goes, the stronger the motivation to make that family proud of your breeding? Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Relevant to PRC today. Those who see this as authoritarianism have to factor in the notion of "shu"--reciprocity--as the duty of those in authoritative positions. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288594 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288594 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 So flies in the face of what our Greek heritage valued in education: oratory, debate, rhetoric. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288593 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288593 And I see the point: debate teaches you to compete in speech, to listen to win, not to learn. To study how to persuade through verbal tricks as much as through reflection and reasoning. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 How significant is it that this is not Kongzi's claim, but that of one of his disciples? https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288592 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288592 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 We Westerners often miss what this opening line shows about Confucian views of education. "[I]n a *timely* fashion to *practice* what you have learned"--this hints at what gets clearer as you go deeper. Education is about Self-Cultivation, ethics. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288591 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288591 Not chemistry and calculus. It's not about "knowing that..." It's about "knowing *how*..." (to live well and humanely). Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Which leads right into the program of the Da Xue, "The Great Learning." Final stage: "Restoring order and peace to the world." It all starts at home. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288590 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288590 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 This is an interesting definition of wuwei: "effortless *ren*". That's new to me, and very, very intriguing. Especially since "ren" comes through *li*--ritual. So "effortless ritual propriety", which Fingarette agrees is key, makes the "Secular Sacred." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288589 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288589 And, as Roger Ames would put it, the "human optimal and virtuostic in humanity." Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Seriously? Ren "originally referred to the strong and handsome appearance of a noble warrior?" https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288588 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28873?scroll_to=288588 How do we know? Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 And after a bit more reflection, I agree with you. In this context, "mind" fails to link "genuine intention" and "refined person" with the force that "heart/emotion" does. But "heart-mind" seems best here as well. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287981 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287981 This short study of "xin" in ancient texts is pretty illuminating: https://www.facebook.com/groups/China300x/698921770193701/ You might have to request membership to the group. Tell Tim Darch that Clay sent you. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 I assume the graph is xin here, which etymologically is a drawing of the heart, but historically included thought as well as emotion. Western translators often translate "xin" as "heart-mind." We don't have such a holistic concept in English. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287980 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287980 Maybe Eno should have followed the "heart-mind" convention? Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Makes more sense now, thanks. Skinny roots with thick branches make for a toppling tree, in other words. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287979 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287979 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Not disagreeing at all, but the interesting thing about Kongzi is his deliberate attempt to "rectify" the name by *re-defining* it to what you describe. The word originally *did* refer to "sons of Lords," iirc. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287978 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287978 And you perfectly describe Kongzi's *radical* reformation of the meaning of the term to be classless. Karl Kongzi Marx. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 You probably know that Mozi and Zhuangzi are renowned for their use of artisan--thus "working class"--metaphors. This being a Late Warring States text, it surely is influenced by both. Funny how Mohism just disappears, when a big contender pre-Qin. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287977 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287977 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Chris, stay tuned for the fourth of the Four Books, the Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong Yong), which is apparently all about cultivating that "balance" ("mean"). I haven't read it yet, but have prepped it for NowComment. Coming soon. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287757 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287757 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:43 -0400 Non-student public readers, ignore this. It's instructions copied over along with the Da Xue and Great Commentary that follow it. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287232 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287232 Annotate away. I hope we find this enjoyable. :) Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:11 -0400 This may be the most effective teaching I've ever done. NowComment enables that. It's a very, very Confucian tool. Interlinear Commentary, like the Ancients did. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287229 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287229 *Instructions:* 1. *Read and collect four Most Interesting Comments* (mine or the text’s). *At least one of them should be about section 7-8. Commentary on “Ordering one’s state and setting the world at peace.” (Line 124-end)* Why? Because it's the climax of the Neo-Confucian vision. *2. Copy and paste them somewhere for use in class next period.* You may give a short speech simply explaining your choices. *Read this before starting:* You see your teacher *as a student here* — one who was inspired by this text from start to finish, and commented on its short 12 pages for at least six hours. (Like Confucius, he "so loves learning he forgot the passing of time" as he read.) You can read it much more quickly, and understand it much more easily (and deeply), with my comments front-loaded this way. *I expect you not to swallow my thoughts, but to chew on them.* If you disagree, "tell me the truth, even if it offends me"--but explain your reasoning: extend, challenge, qualify my claims. *I desire that.* To quote Jesus, “Those with ears, let them hear.” Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:08 -0400 And, perhaps, surpass the Bible, if we're open-minded. The Hebrew prophets, after all, cared about the tribe of God's "chosen people," not "all people. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287228 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287228 This is perhaps the most majestic and inspiring aspect of the Zhou vision of a good society. It does not exclude *anybody.* There is no *them.* All humanity is *us.* Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:08 -0400 Jesus, this is a portrait of the United States over the last 20 or 30 years. Jaw-dropping relevance. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287227 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287227 And prophecy to equal the Bible. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:08 -0400 See note, line 169. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287226 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287226 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:08 -0400 Again, a frank observation: the rich who cling to too much wealth will ultimately be attacked, possibly killed, by society. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287225 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287225 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:08 -0400 What strikes me about Confucianism is its ECONOMIC arguments and warrants. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287224 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287224 If interested, a short essay by Xunzi, "On Ritual," ties ritual and the sumptuary codes to economics by arguing that they both prevent the rich-poor gap from becoming *too* wide. Ritual serves an economic function, too. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:08 -0400 The Dao of Economics, again. So surprising to see this economic emphasis in this climax! https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287223 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287223 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 "extravagance" = valuing a Billion-Dollar Barbie more than the good of society. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287222 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287222 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 I'm too tired to unpack this. It seems to observe that the rich don't experience the burdens of the poor--and when too rich, hire thugs ("brigands") to protect their wealth. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287220 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287220 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 This entire section BEGS to be compared with the great Hebrew prophets--Jeremiah and others--in the Hebrew Bible/Christian "Old" Testament. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287219 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287219 If you're bored, you should take a break and come back when conscious. This finalé blazes with moral fury. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 A horrible age, horrible fate. "To shine in a world without the Way is shameful. To be unknown in a world that has the Way is disgraceful."--Analects. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287218 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287218 This line describes a world without the Way. To become a politician today--in hegemonic America, anyway--requires *millions* of dollars for election campaigns on the higher levels. Those who want to correct the state do not get those millions in donations--from the billionaires who can afford to toss millions around. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 "Tell him the truth, even if it offends him."--The Analects. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287217 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287217 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Our world. To see politicians, the wealthy spend billions of dollars a year on professional lobbyists, who imply election campaign donations in return for favors to the elite. The moneyless do not have the ear of the rulers. They can't afford it. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287216 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287216 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Magnificent. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287215 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287215 I don't know this "Oath of Qin" text. I really, really hope I can find it. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 See line 159 below for background. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287214 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287214 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Ren is, with Ritual (Li), the most important concept in Confucianism. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287213 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287213 We saw Confucius walking the Way of Ren when he treated blind people, strangers in mourning, and street peddlers with respect. It's universal compassion for all. A recognition of everybody's humanity. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Again, rectifying names: "wealth" is moral, not material. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287212 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287212 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 When the rich-poor gap becomes too wide, and the rich take too much from the rest of society, the rest of society will attack, and perhaps kill, the rich. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287211 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287211 This is a pattern of history. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Where the goods are "concentrated" in the hands of the wealthy, poverty results. People leave, pushed by poverty, to seek better circumstances elsewhere. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287210 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287210 Where goods are *dispersed*--spread *among* the population, so that there is no crushing poverty--people come, finding a chance for better living standards. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Basic economics terms. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287209 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287209 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 "Expropriation" = "ex- (away from, out of) propre (property) = "taking property (material goods, things) away from others." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287208 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287208 Distribution: spreading property/goods *among* the population. Expropriation: taking property/goods *from* the population. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 The logical results of greedy elites. Penetrating, tight economic and political argument. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287207 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287207 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 Benevolent dictatorship: authoritarianism with a democratic "intention." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287206 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287206 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 And remember that "partiality"--favoritism--is the result of "an unbalanced mind." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287205 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287205 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:07 -0400 My rulers are partial to a razor-thin minority. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287204 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287204 Many scholars predict the end of American democracy within a generation or two. It has lost the trust and faith of the people. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 "Yin" is another name for the Shang Dynasty. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287203 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287203 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 Shijing (Book of Songs) read through lens of Mandate of Heaven, and its double-edged sword. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287202 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287202 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 Professor Eno, again, is excellent here. This is ancient Chinese "democracy"... https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287201 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287201 *Not* voting for dirtbags every four years, but *expecting of your leaders the decent life all working people deserve.* Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 What you despise in those who lead you, don't practice to those you lead. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287200 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287200 Politicians play the game and sell out. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 When your subordinates are dirtbags, don't be that way toward your own authority. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287199 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287199 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 If your authorities are dirtbags, don't become one of them when *you* become an authority. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287198 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287198 My people ignore this. "You've got to play the game." Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 The carpenter's square "aligns" things, "straightens affairs." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287197 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287197 My ruler does not fulfill this Dao. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 One in four inner city children in my country live in poverty. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287196 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287196 The people turn their backs. "The poor deserve their poverty." Never mind that their schools suck due to school funding policies: rich neighborhoods pay for their schools, poor neighborhoods pay for theirs. Different policies are obviously possible. My people turn their backs. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 The people in my country say my Mom is poor because "she didn't work hard." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287195 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287195 They resist taxes adjusted to take care of her--either by increasing them on the Billion-Dollar-Barbie set, or by reducing the amount of taxes spent on war and weapons of war. My people do not practice behavior fitting the younger. They are heartless. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 My mother worked full-time for 48 years. She's retired now, going blind, and cannot afford basic comforts. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287194 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287194 I'm not a fan of my rulers in the USA. They don't treat the elderly well. They treat the richest .01% *very* well. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 The Climax: World Peace. (Line 43) https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287193 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287193 I haven’t pre-read it, and am hoping to stay strong in this fourth hour of reading. It’s a deep, deep read. I’m loving this *as a student.* Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 Wow. This implies that DE comes from learning your place in the structure of roles in the household's "five relationships" (actually, only three apply to households). https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287191 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287191 Only when you master those roles, and their functions in relation to the other role-bearers in your family system, do you become an *exemplary human* able to *"bend the grass"* with your *De.* Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 Koreans get this more than the Chinese. When my wife talks of friends, she always mentions who's the oldest, even if it's by a day. They find this out, and *align* themselves to authority of the oldest. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287190 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287190 I've got a story on this one too, if anyone is interested. Just ask. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 "At first glance," our modern response: "Oh, but it's just *domestic.* Yuck. Bad." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287189 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287189 "On second thought,"--isn't somebody *raising*, and not just *feeding*, the family a very, very important thing for society? Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:06 -0400 MONÉ asked about WOMEN in Confucianism. Note the importance of their role here. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287188 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287188 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 I know this song. "The lady" is off to marry none other than King Wen. And the common people are singing their joy for their lord, and their hopes for an "aligned" household, harmonious in the Way of the Daxue. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287187 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287187 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 Structural note: As we near the apex of the Great Learning--the attainment of Sagehood and the establishment of Peace in the World--we see a return to the Shujing and Shijing (Book of Songs). Beautiful and majestic architecture of text here. Climactic. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287186 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287186 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 "Radically optimistic" "growth Mindset." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287185 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287185 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 And here, the FAMILY, not the KINGDOM, is being "made new," by the Father who has learned to walk the Way. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287184 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287184 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 And back to "making the people new" in the "Three Guidelines" of the Daxue, first four lines (paragraph 20). https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287183 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287183 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 Back to quoting the Shujing. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287182 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287182 I need to find this "Announcement of Kang" chapter. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 The first two lines concern cultivating harmonious citizens. The last one cultivates the ruler who must earn the Mandate--by kindness to his citizens. Fathers, by the way, must show kindness to their families, as "rulers" of their households too. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287181 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287181 Fathers, being "rulers" of the household, have a Mandate as well. Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 The Analects: "criticize your parents when you disagree, but if they don't change, keep harmony." This disturbs many modern students. Perhaps this line justifies that moral advice. Harmony is more important than "fighting when you know you're right." https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287180 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287180 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 (And this is a powerful annotation.) https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287179 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287179 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 Good government starts in good households. A father's and mother's responsibility--that is today often neglected, because adults act like children, playing with toys and delights. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287178 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287178 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400 See line 41, above. https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287177 https://nowcomment.com/documents/28676?scroll_to=287177 Fri, 13 Jul 2018 19:20:05 -0400