Confucius said, "You know your destiny at fifty." What is fate? Why do you know?

Let's take a look at Confucius' summary of himself:

15 years old, aspiring to learn, standing at 30 years old, not confused at 40 years old, knowing destiny at 50 years old, listening at 60 years old, and being free at 70 years old.

This sentence is Confucius' exposition of several nodes in life. Taking these nodes as boundaries, we can see five realms of Confucius' life.

Before the age of 30, Confucius could not stand on his own feet because of his failure in learning;

Thirty to forty, there are still many doubts on the basis of self-reliance;

Forty to fifty, although I can clearly see what I see without doubt, I still don't know what my fate is;

From the age of 50 to 60, I already know where my destiny belongs, but I still can't tolerate things different from my destiny.

Sixty to seventy, you can basically reconcile your differences with the outside world, but you still can't write freedom.

It can be seen that this is not only Confucius' summary of his life, but also Confucius' expectation of the realm that all people should reach.

Node: fifteen is interested in learning.

In the process of contact with society, it is our most basic requirement to be self-reliant and basically not dependent on others. In the current words, it is to deal with problems like adults.

Node: thirty stops.

On the basis of self-reliance, seek further development, upgrade the three views internally and pursue career achievements externally. In this process, we will encounter many difficult and scratching things, not to mention dealing with internal and external relations. At this stage, we will be confused, but we will seek the answers to the questions that plague us on the basis of completing our duties.

Node: forty is not confused.

In another ten years, when we can deal with all kinds of things around us systematically and comprehensively, we will not continue to be confused under normal circumstances. We will be able to know ourselves rationally, know our past and present, but we still can't understand our future belonging and the meaning of life.

Node: You knew your destiny at the age of fifty.

One day, we fully understood the meaning of our life and reached the realm of understanding. At this time, we can completely answer those three philosophical questions: who am I, where am I from and where am I going? People who have reached this state have gained their own Tao and can see all their existing processes on the time axis, so the mind is indestructible. At this time, people don't have a clear understanding of others' ways, and they can't agree with things different from their own.

Node: Shun, 60 years old

The state after hearing it can be ignored here. Let's look at what fate is in turn.

In Confucius' world, fate is beyond personnel, and people need to work hard to understand it. If you want to know your destiny, you must not be confused first, and you must stand on your own feet first. Knowing the destiny means that the destiny can be known, which means that the destiny already exists, but people don't know it.

There is a poem that says, "I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain, but toward which corner of the mountain". It is impossible to have a correct understanding of fate from a personal point of view. If you want to know the nature of fate, you must jump out of the individual and stand in the air to overlook it, and you will get different results.

If the whole human society is regarded as a whole, then everyone's "fate" depends on others, but at the same time, all of us have no conscious and purposeful ability to completely decide the fate of others, so the destinies of all individuals are intertwined, forming an unknowable chaotic system. At the same time, consciously and purposefully controlling the fate of all people is beyond human ability.

However, this does not mean that the destiny is a completely unchangeable existence for individuals, otherwise it is completely meaningless for Confucius to listen to his words and do his things. For individuals, we know fate because we can know and control it ourselves. Although our words and deeds can't completely determine fate, we can influence it as much as possible! As the old saying goes, "Do your best and listen to your destiny." In the popular discourse system, there is a similar meaning, that is, the vulgar and inspirational sentence: "know what you want", and then "the road you choose, you have to walk on your knees."

This kind of thing, fate, is the trajectory of your life. If you are careless and happy-go-lucky, your fate is an unpredictable random curve, but if you have the heart and do your best, your fate is bumpy, but there is always hope to achieve your goal.