The story of Confucius

Zhong Ni, Xiang Tuo1; Ancient sages are still eager to learn.

Sima Qian's Historical Records says: "Confucius lived in Chen at the age of three, and Jin Chu fought for strength and even attacked Chen." In 489 BC, Chu and Wu made peace, and the two armies confronted each other. The situation was tense and explosive, and the breach of trust (now Xinyang, Henan) became the front line. Confucius, who lived in a negative letter, had to bid farewell to Ye Gong, a doctor of Chu who was polite and diligent in asking questions about politics, accepted the appointment of King Zhao of Chu and prepared to move the capital to Chu. In autumn and October, sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, the wheat waves are rolling and the rice is golden. Confucius took Luz, Zigong and Yan Hui along the Dabie Mountains and across the country, ready to go to Du Yun. They marched on the ancient plank road in a carriage. The scenery along the way is rich: farmers work with hoes in the fields, and shepherds graze cattle and sheep in the mountains. The river twists and turns, crystal clear; Rows of trees shade the sun and bamboo forests sway with the wind; The villages are closely connected, with traffic, the sound of chickens and dogs, and sometimes the melodious flute echoes in the air. When it gets dark, they will live in a nearby village, or ask the villagers to understand the history, customs and human feelings at that time, collect folk songs and folk songs, or hold a forum to discuss and preach the profound truth of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith". Sometimes I will stay in a village for two or three days to collect some information. One day, accompanied by hoofbeats and endless dust, they came to the old street south of Daoguan River in Xinzhou. I saw Damushan lying like a beautiful woman under the blue sky and white clouds, with high winds and dense forests; Shahe is clear and flowing; Lion Rock is like a fierce lion, devouring the sun and the moon. Here, beautiful scenery, birds and flowers, is a fairyland on earth. Not far from the street south, the driver suddenly pulled the reins, Ma Si roared and the car stopped. Confucius said, "Why stop?" The coachman replied, "Master, there are a group of children in the way ahead." "Let them make way." "Kid, why don't you make way when you see the carriage coming?" Zi Gong jumped out of the car and said grumpily. "Why should we make way? Can't you go the other way? " A child who seems to be a leader replied. Zi Gong glared and roared, "Do you know whose car this is? Tell you, this is Confucius' car! "I heard that Zi Gong had an argument with his children, so Confucius had no choice but to get off and find out for himself. Seeing a handsome old man with elegant shirt and elegant manners, the children were fearless and disapproving, and continued to build their "city" with stones. Confucius stroked the head of a handsome little boy and said kindly, "Little childe, would you please move the stone and let us pass?" The child looked up at Confucius and said, "Mary, we are building a city." ""Well, I have a question. If you can't answer, you can make way for us. "Confucius believes that people should serve people with' courtesy' and children should be treated equally." You go out, "thought the child. I am Gao Jiao, the guardian of the Tibetan history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Can you still beat me? "Listen carefully," Confucius asked. "Are parents and husband and wife close?" "Husband and wife." The child replied no, parents. No parents, no offspring! ""husband and wife, no husband and wife, no parents! "They have their own opinions, and no one can convince anyone." Parents and husband and wife are repeated twice. Confucius said: Parents have food and clothing. Parents raise children, eat and drink Lazarus, educate adults, preach and teach students, so don't worry! Of course parents are close. Xiang Tuo returns the favor: husband and wife love each other, men plow and women weave, sleep on pillows, take care of each other, love each other for a long time, grow old together and never part. One day, the husband and wife will still be grateful! Husband and wife, of course ..... Confucius believes that Kong Qiu is famous all over the world, and I am called the sacred China. Today, I still can't convince a child, "I can't stand it, if I am cooked, I can't stand it!" "On second thought,' gentlemen do not dispute', I am tolerant as the sea, and my knowledge is not as good as that of a child. He took away the value of a great scholar and bowed: "A child prodigy is on earth, and the old lady is polite. We have important things to do. We look forward to your help and lend us a way. " The child said confidently, "Excuse me, sir, has the city given way to the car or the car given way to the city since ancient times?" Lutz said, "Which city are you from? Just a child's game! " "It's this city! "Hold the reins for the time being. Knowing that he was wrong, the child asked, "Do you have anything important?" "Travel around the world, preaching. "Confucius said." You have to have a set of skills and talents to teach. Do you blame Confucius for answering: "I don't boast." I know a thing or two from astronomy to geography. " The child said, "Astronomy and geography know everything. Then let me ask you, how many eyebrows do you have? "Confucius said," I can't see my eyebrows. How do I know how many? " The child had a brainwave and then asked, "If you don't see Feng, can you see the stars in the sky? How many do you think? " "There are too many stars in the sky, just a dime a dozen. How can you count it? " Confucius said awkwardly. The child smiled and said, "Oh, you have too many. There is only one sun, like an ice tray in the morning and a Yuhuan race at noon. When will it come near us? "When will it be far from us?" Confucius thought for a long time and murmured, "OK, OK ... I really don't know. You are a child prodigy, only Chu Youcai! I still hope that everyone will give me more advice. " The child said, "I'm afraid to teach you. I have my hands full right now. See you later. " At this time, all the disciples were shouting, "Master, let's go!" " Confucius had to bow to the child: "See you later! "I thought to myself, this knowledge really hasn't been studied well! Immediately, the driver turned around and made a detour. I didn't expect to walk for about a kilometer, because the wheel of the car was broken because of a sharp turn just now. Confucius had no choice but to ask Luz to borrow an axe from the village in front to repair it. Lutz hurried to the front village and saw a middle-aged woman weaving in the room. Lutz respectfully said, "Aunt, please borrow something from you. "Before Luz finished, the woman turned and took out a shiny axe from the back room." Here you are! ""Lutz was surprised. How did she know it was an axe? The woman smiled and said, "Don't you want to borrow something?" ? "East" is oriental wood, "West" is western gold, axe handle is wood, axe is iron, and "gold" is iron. You want to borrow an axe! Lutz ran back to the parking lot with an axe and told Confucius what had just happened. Confucius sighed after listening. I met a clever child just now and now I meet a village woman. She is not only helpful, but also very clever. Can't help but admire: Chu is a land of hidden dragons and crouching tigers! The child who stumped Confucius was Xiang Tuo. Warring States policy? Qin Ce said, "Gan Luo said: Xiang Tuo was Confucius' teacher at the age of seven. Confucius and Xiang Tuo asked each other, a well-known literary work, not only spread throughout China, but also spread to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Russia and other countries long ago. "Saint Amethyst" also contains: "In the past, Zhongni studied under Xiang Tuo; Ancient sages are still eager to learn. " Therefore, the problem between Confucius and Xiang Tuo is an eternal beauty talk. Because eastern Hubei said that some people like to argue glibly and try to sharpen their mouths, he named the place where Confucius asked questions as Mozuiyan and the place where Confucius detoured to repair cars as the carriage return port to punish his affairs.

2. The wind deceives the bamboo for a while, and even the rain sends autumn. Fish swim and shadows sink, but books stay.

Although Chang Ju and Jie lived in seclusion in the mountains, they did not close their eyes. They know that they once asked Confucius: "The Lu rebellion originated from Ji's family, and everyone understands it. However, why is it more confusing to understand? " Ask Confucius to point out the maze. Confucius replied at that time: "Because you only know one country and one person, but you don't know the world." It can be seen that Confucius knows but is not fascinated. The implication of what is often said: Confucius knew both Lu's "maze" and Chu's "maze", so he didn't tell each other about the ferry. Confucius and his party had to ask others. When they came to the ferry, they saw an old man ferrying. Lutz said, "boatman, please take us across the river." "Ok, please get on the carriage." The boatman struggles with bamboo poles, the horse crosses the river with a wooden boat in the water, and the horse can swim. When the boat reached the middle of the river, the wind suddenly blew and the wooden boat shook in the waves. The ship went up and down, unstable like a drunk, and everyone on board lost their center of gravity. The whole ship and carriage couldn't stand the turbulence, and with the surge of wind and clouds, the ship tilted and fell into the river. Confucius, his disciples and others became a drowned rat and fell into the water, and their clothes were all wet. The problem of people falling into the water is not too serious, and it is not cold in the south at this time. Unfortunately for my books, Confucius shouted, "Help me with those books!" " "There is a folk proverb: Confucius was moved? All the books. Confucius was eager to learn all his life, and he was happy to forget the best. He didn't know that his old age was coming. I carry a lot of books everywhere. Ancient books are actually seal characters carved or written on bamboo slips. Cai Lun invented papermaking in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Bi Sheng invented movable type printing many years later in the Northern Song Dynasty. Under everyone's tossing, the carriage was pushed ashore and the book was fished up. However, those books are all soaked in water. Confucius was anxious and looked around, looking for a place to print books. Or Yan Hui young, eagle-eyed, "look! There is a hill on the other side. "The mountain is more than three hundred meters high, with no leaning on all sides and an independent side. The top of the mountain is flat and clean, and it is two acres square. Confucius' frowning brows spread out. At this time, it is crisp in autumn and the sun shines directly on the mountain, so it is easy to print books. The disciples quickly moved the wet books to the top of the mountain and spread them out to dry. There is no one around. Lutz, Zigong and Yan Hui took off their clothes and wrung them dry. After some tossing just now, Confucius stood on the top of the mountain overlooking the gurgling water and could not help but sigh: "The water is so beautiful and magnificent! Unfortunately, there is no bridge here. If only there were a bridge here, passers-by wouldn't wade and suffer like us! " Later, Confucius and his disciples sat on a piece of feldspar more than 20 feet long, took a rest and waited for the book to dry. Lutz recalled his recent trip, and all kinds of misfortunes made him full of complaints, chanting: when practicing etiquette under a big tree in Song Dynasty, Sima Huan wanted to kill his master; Ley was besieged by Dr. Cai Chen for three days, and many people were hungry and sick because they didn't have a grain of rice. In the morning, I was teased by Xiang Tuo's children in the old street, and even people and cars fell into the water in the afternoon, which was really unfortunate. It can be described as "the wind knife forces the tree." Confucius generously explained: "Heaven is a great responsibility for us, and it is a long way to go to realize the rites of Zhou and return the world to benevolence. Hunger and suffering are inevitable. We must be indomitable and die. " The mountain where Confucius and his disciples used to print books is behind Jinwen Academy. The mountains are flat, the trees are lush, the bamboo forests are lush, and the crops are shaded. It is called the mountain of drying books. The feldspar on which Confucius sat was called "Sitting Stone". Later, when he stopped to give a lecture, Mo Chi and inkstone were all around him to study ink. Mo Chi is a stream not far from the stone, and the stone beside the stream is as black as ink, hence the name Mo Chi. The word "Mo Chi" is engraved on the stone carvings in Linchi. Although it has a long history, it is still legible. A stone by the pool is shaped like an inkstone, like a pair made in heaven. Every time the weather changes, there is "ink" leaching, and the pool water will not dry up after a long drought.

3. Confucius read Yi.

Seasoning in one fell swoop

In the spring of the thirteenth year of Confucius' reign (497 BC), he began to travel around the world from Shandong to Wei. The aim was to carry out his political proposition of "benevolent governance and rule by virtue", but it failed because it did not conform to the trend of the times, and he returned to his native land in the eleventh year of Aigong (484 BC). It lasted fourteen years abroad, when Confucius was sixty-eight years old. At this time, in addition to continuing to teach and educate people in Shandong, Confucius began an in-depth study of Zhouyi while compiling and sorting out the Five Classics. Later generations described him as diligent in intensive reading of the Book of Changes, and he was known as "Bian Wei's Three Masterpieces". It means that he often turns over letters, causing geisha to break the tape that runs through them many times.

Thanks to his hard work, he has achieved fruitful results. Wrote "Haiku Up and Down"; "Up and down like a word"; Biography of Classical Chinese; "Say hexagrams"; Preface and Biography; Experience of reading the Book of Changes, including Biography of Miscellaneous Guas. Later generations called it the "Ten Wings" of the Book of Changes, and made a comprehensive analysis and comment on the connotation of the Book of Changes, which promoted the original pure book of divination to the position of humanistic theory, and finally became a philosophical masterpiece, which was crowned as the first of the Six Classics.

For example, Biography of Classical Chinese and Connecting Up and Down are full of philosophies, which show his insight into current events and life. For example, the slogan "Flying dragons are in the sky, which is beneficial to meet adults" in Classical Chinese, the potential implication of this slogan is that there are vigorous and upright great men, and their careers are in full swing and they are in a dominant position. In order to benefit all things and the public, they should be responsible for selecting talents and appointing people, and those who have made achievements should also assist them to benefit the whole people. Confucius further elaborated this sentence: "Respond with one voice and seek with the same spirit. Water is wet and fire is dry ... Those who lean on heaven are upward, and those who lean on the ground are close, so they all follow their own categories." That is to say: the same kind of tone will produce * * * chirp (the crow of chickens can only arouse the crow of chickens, but never the crow of donkeys), and the same kind of breath will attract each other (the male dog will only look for the bitch, not the pig), the water will flow to the place with low humidity, and the fire will spread to the dry place ... It depends on the upward development of the sky (such as sunshine and air) and the downward rooting of the earth, so everything depends on himself.

Another example is "No", which was used in the Ninth Five-Year Plan. Its death depends on bud mulberry ",its original intention is: to be alert to the emergence of danger, princes and nobles should always keep in mind that good luck is good, and danger is dangerous. The fate of the country seems to be tied to weak bud grass and mulberry branches, and it may fall at any time!

Confucius gave a heartfelt sigh to this divination! He wrote: "Those who are in danger are also in their place. The dead, let them live. Chaos, but also cure. Therefore, a gentleman is safe without forgetting danger, not forgetting death, not forgetting chaos, and protecting his family with his own body. " This clearly warns future generations: "If people who are content with the status quo lose their vigilance, danger will arise;" If you save yourself and take improper measures, you will plant a curse, enjoy peace and be insensitive, and social unrest will follow. In order to avoid the above consequences, it is necessary to ask the gentleman to be safe without forgetting the danger, to be safe without forgetting the danger, and to be stable without forgetting the chaos. Only in this way can he be stable and the country be preserved. "

Confucius left the eternal truth that "be prepared for danger in times of peace" to future generations here.

As can be seen from the above examples, Confucius' reading of the Book of Changes is indeed a great innovation.