A Confucius Conversation
As imagined by Zhuangzi.
[Author’s Note: This is a fictional conversation between Confucius and Laozi as imagined by Zhuangzi, taken from LinYutang’s Wisdom of Confucius. I have paraphrased some for the sake of brevity. Readers may recognize similarity with the story I used in “Letting Oneself Run Away With Desires”.]
Zhuangzi has a way with stories that rivals HanFei. Like the Light Side to HanFei’s Dark, he doesn’t prefer to present ideas abstractly, favouring instead a situation or a conversation. He doesn’t mind who (or what) the characters are. The North Wind could be talking to The Great South Sea in a fantastically impossible scenario. Or Confucius might have come to see the Imperial Records Keeper in Zhou, an old man, LiEr, that some called Laozi.
Confucius went to see Laozi and was asked, “I hear you are a wise man from the north. Have you found the truth?” To which Confucius replied, “Not yet, though I searched in governmental systems for five years, and in the principle of yin and yang for twelve years.”
“Yes, you are right,” replied Laozi, “For if the Tao could be given as a gift, everybody would offer it as tribute to their ruler. Everybody would have presented it to their parents. If Tao could be inherited, everybody would bequeath it to his children. Because if you have not got it in you, you could not receive Tao.”
Confucius was looking to the past for the answers, for justice. He was a historian, one of the first and certainly the most famous in China’s history, though you will struggle to find anyone who would fail to first describe him as a philosopher. The answers are not waiting in the past. I look there all the time; from my past, from China’s past, and there are only ever more questions. There is no example we can follow and be our best selves.
“What is felt in oneself cannot be received from the outside. What is received from the outside cannot stop within. Remember that reputation is something that belongs to the public and should not be striven for too eagerly. For a successful man cannot give another person his salary, a famous man cannot donate his fame to others, and a man in a high position cannot give his power to another. Holding that power, a man is frightened when he has it and worried lest he should lose it. And these people go on forever without ever stopping to see what it is all about. These are the damned.”
I was having a bad few days recently. These stretches come from time to time. Talking up a good game about acceptance is not the same as embodying that truth every day. When you want something to work and feel the slow slipping away, that hurts. Once you see suffering and understand a bit of where suffering comes from, you begin to see it in everyone. People going on forever without stopping, destroying their lives and never knowing why. Why can’t we hit pause and see what we have in front of us? Maybe we are all damned.
“Resentment, favor, give, take, censure, advice, life, and death — these eight are the means for correcting a man’s character, but only one who comprehends the great process of this fluid universe without being submerged knows how to handle them. Therefore, it is said, ‘You rectify what can be rectified.’ When a man’s heart cannot see this, the door of his intelligence is shut.”
My problem is listening. One problem, anyway. The Great Process has granted me wild favour and commensurate resentment and so far, has given more than taken. Now advice and censure thrash me smartly. The time is for acceptance, to listen to my universe, to do what I can, and accept that our intelligence and peace is our own.
“When you see suffering and start to understand where it comes from you see it in everyone” gosh I totally relate to that.
"There is no example we can follow and be our best selves." This hit home! I miss the highlight feature from Medium! So many good takeaways from this one! :)