How to go into politics

The Analects of Confucius-Political Second

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Confucius doesn't talk about politics.

The first article "Learning for the sake of learning" is about the internal cultivation of personal learning, and then the second article "For politics" is about the external application of learning.

However, when it comes to politics, we should pay attention to one thing: we often find that in some works, many people think that politics is Confucius' "political thought" or, in modern vocabulary, it is called "political philosophy". In my personal research, I think this statement is wrong. Confucius rarely mentioned the complete concept of "politics". Confucius only said "to be political", which we should pay special attention to. From an academic point of view, we should be very strict. We often say, "Everyone is equal before the law and must obey the truth." The position of learning is "in the face of learning, the attitude should be very strict and obey the truth." Confucius only talked about "being political", not politics; "Politics" is like what the founding father said: "Manage everyone's affairs." What Confucius said about "governing" is enlightenment, a noun of China culture, and can't be regarded as education. Teaching is education and culture is influence, but in the past it was not influence, but style. The significance of governing the country includes enlightenment. We must grasp this key point. Therefore, the second article "For Politics" also talked about the external use of learning.

The demeanor of a great politician

Confucius said: Governing the country by virtue is like Beichen, living in its place and with stars.

"* * *" means "arch". On the surface, these words are very easy to understand. Confucius put forward that the most important thing in politics is "virtue". Having said that, it should be noted that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the word "de" was rarely used in series. At that time, Tao was Tao and virtue was virtue. After the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties that these two words were linked together and became a noun called "De"; Today, when young people talk about morality, they regard it as a disgusting noun. This is the evolution of cultural thought. Therefore, we must know that before the Qin and Han Dynasties, virtue was virtue; "Tao" and "Tian" were the most troublesome and difficult words to define at that time, and they were also of great significance. Sometimes the word "Tao" is the representative of metaphysical ontology; Sometimes it is the way of Tao, sometimes it is reason or law, just like Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Soldiers are cunning." This Tao is the meaning of law; Sometimes it is the representative of morality. The same is true of the word "Tian", which contains four or five meanings. In the same book, even the same sentence, the words before and after have different meanings. This seems to be a cultural problem in China, but it is also a strength, especially before the invention of ancient printing. The concept represented by one word, carved on bamboo slips with a knife, was enough to fully express at that time.

Let's talk about the meaning of the word "de" first. In the past, "virtue" was the result and function of good behavior. The ancients explained that "virtue is also obtained". Therefore, we know that Confucius' theory of "ruling by virtue" is the result of good deeds, which is similar to the meaning of "virtue" in later generations. If you don't do in-depth research, you will usually tell students in school that the "virtue" here is "virtue", because students don't reach a certain level and teachers can't move out more antiques to explain them in detail. Why did Confucius put forward the word "virtue"? This is the first question.

What do stars know?

The second question is about "Beichen". The earliest development of Chinese culture was astronomy. In the past, we divided the celestial bodies into 28 constellations and three walls-purple, few and too small, similar to the latitude and longitude of astronomy we are talking about now. Latitude and longitude are the divisions of the west. An astronomer once argued that we rowed by ourselves, not according to the western degree. For example, Greenwich Mean Time was drawn by the British, which has nothing to do with us. Why don't we talk about our own Central Plains time, or take Taiwan Province Province as the center and cross the latitude and longitude again? In fact, we used to be divided. The celestial body is divided into three walls and twenty-eight nights, which is to divide the range of celestial constellations into twenty-eight parts. Why is it called "Sue"? This refers to which constellation appears in the eastern sky when the sun sets in the west every day. This constellation is "Su". This constellation is different every month, every half month and every seven days, so it is divided into twenty-eight nights and twelve days according to the relationship between time and celestial bodies. The Big Dipper was discovered before, which is what westerners now call Ursa major. In summer, we can see the Milky Way. In the north of the Milky Way, the seven brightest stars are the Big Dipper. These seven stars are connected together like a ladle of water, which was called "dou" in ancient times. Today's astronomy has not left the principle of our ancestors. Many stars in the whole celestial body are centered on Polaris, and the stars guard it. Every night, in front of the bucket handle of the Big Dipper, there must be two brightest stars, the famous two, whose light is the brightest and the easiest to see. In spring, the Big Dipper must point to the Yin Palace in the East. In the past, great generals had to master astronomy, geography and personnel to lead troops. Because astronomy is very important in the military, take marching as an example. If you get lost at night, you can tell the direction without instruments. This set of culture used to be very common in China, but now we have no idea about the inherent "astronomy". We can't help but pay attention to these things handed down from generation to generation, and we must pick them up.

Throughout the year, the movement of celestial constellations seems to obey the command of the Big Dipper, follow it and rotate around it. Not only all the year round, but also every month, the direction pointed by the Big Dipper is different, and the whole celestial body is running at any time. At twelve o'clock every day, the direction of the Big Dipper is also changing, and this is a fixed change for trillions of years. It cannot be out of order, and in fact it will never be out of order.

We know "Beichen", so what does Confucius mean? That is to say, "ruling the country by virtue" has a good heart and impeccable external behavior. For example, Beichen has a central idea and a central style. Moral influence, don't move yourself there. As long as you give the order, the people below will follow your direction like countless constellations all over the sky.

Liu Bei was taken in by Cao Cao

In military thinking, we all know the words "unite as one" and "use wisely and unite as one". Everyone has different views on its interpretation. Some people interpret it as "millions of heroes and millions of people", which is not very good. The best coach can't help it in this situation. This is a matter of thought, and his thoughts must be concentrated. Yue Fei put forward the view that "the beauty of art lies in one heart". Now if it is interpreted as the variation of the coach's calculation, the so-called "mountain man has his own coup" is even worse. Let's study, Yue Fei's "one heart" is "one heart", which is more appropriate. Then "living in its place, the stars * * *" is the truth.

Secondly, we know that Confucianism and Taoism were not separated before Qin and Han Dynasties. As we all know, Laozi and Zhuangzi's Taoist thoughts talk about "governing by doing nothing". Some people interpret Taoist "governing by doing nothing" as people who are led by the above, regardless of anything, that is, "governing by doing nothing". This is completely wrong. Taoism does not have this saying, it is "governing by doing nothing." The so-called "governing by doing nothing" means taking the initiative first, and there seems to be nothing wrong with it. For example, a leader, a moderator, for any method, at the beginning, you should first analyze its disadvantages, where is the problem, first find the source of the disease, dredge it, and then do nothing but do everything.

Speaking of which, tell a joke. During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's time, a friend worked as a deputy security commander in an administrative inspector's office. He goes out to fight bandits almost every day. I asked him, "Where did you get so many bandits?" He blamed me for always paying attention to world affairs, not even taking a goose feather fan and not being a strategist. I asked him what this meant. He said, "What shall we do if all the robbers are wiped out?" I said that's what you did. He said, "It's not what we want, it's what the neighboring counties want to do to drive the bandits away. This is many times and a lot of credit. What can we do if they want to do this? " Some people say that Liu Bei was trained by Cao Cao. If he hadn't trained a Liu Bei, he couldn't have praised the emperor as a vassal.

This is how the world today tells such a bad story to illustrate this truth-this kind of inaction is really immoral. From our political thoughts of politics and military science, we can see that the so-called "being an official, hector has no merit", and the meaning of this sentence in military thought is the so-called "conquering the enemy without fighting". As long as the general is here, the enemy will be afraid and dare not move, and the war will not start. This is certainly remarkable. If an ordinary person has the advantages of hector, that is another matter. The general point of so-called inaction is also here, and Confucius' moral politics is this truth.

Why does Confucius always mention such a thing? There is a saying that the ancients studied the history of China, which is called "the combination of classics and history". What is a classic? This is the common road, and this is the eternal principle. This principle will not change at any time and in any region. But it doesn't mean that it can be stipulated that no changes are allowed, but it must be, so it is called "Jing". And "history" is to record the changes of the times and society under this principle. If you want to understand classics, you must understand history. Take every era of history and every society to cooperate. It is meaningful to study classical history in this way. For example, Confucius said that "ruling the country by virtue" seems to be a rigid dogma on the surface. Actually, it's not. We read history and knew when Confucius was born, and later renamed it "Spring and Autumn Period", that is, the period from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Confucius wrote a book called Spring and Autumn Annals, which later became synonymous with history. Before and after Confucius, some people wrote history, called Spring and Autumn Period. Why is history called "Spring and Autumn" instead of "Winter and Summer" in China culture? In principle, cold is cold and hot is hot, which is called winter and summer. Some people say that because the first sentence in the Spring and Autumn Period is "the first month of spring king"-later generations read "the first month of spring king" as a sentence, which is wrong. Therefore, we repeatedly said that we should pay attention to reading ancient books, because there was no pen and paper at that time, and it was very difficult to carve words on bamboo slips with a knife, so often one word represented a complex meaning. This "spring" is spring; "Wang" is the central government and the Zhou Dynasty; "The first month" is the first month of the monthly order of the Zhou Dynasty; It is wrong to be "the first month of the Spring King" —— Explain why history is called the Spring and Autumn Period.

As I said just now, the earliest development of China culture is science, and the earliest development of science is astronomy. To talk about the history of world science and even the history of science, we must first study astronomy. When it comes to astronomy, astronomy in China was developed 3,000 years ago. In the world, it is the first. When we talk about astronomy, we must also talk about mathematics, and China's mathematics was also very developed six thousand years ago. In this regard, I will discuss the Book of Changes when I have the opportunity to talk about it later.

China's culture comes from astronomy-we know that the climate is uneven all year round, and it is too cold in winter and too hot in summer. Speaking of day and night, the days are too short in winter and too long and uneven in summer. Only between February in spring and August in autumn are the two solar terms "vernal equinox" and "autumnal equinox", that is, in latitude and longitude, the moment when the sun just reaches the middle of the equator is as long as day and night, and the climate is lukewarm and mild, so it is called Spring and Autumn. This is the historian of China. He thinks that in this era, the social and political cure is not good, and it is judged by the weather that is as balanced as the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox. Take the present concept as an example. Let's weigh you. How many years have you been emperor? Are you worthy of your country? How many years have you been an official? Be worthy of the people? I'll weigh you. History is therefore called "Spring and Autumn Period".

Learn about life from typhoons

We read Spring and Autumn Annals and History of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Confucius said in the Book of Changes: "It is not an overnight event that a minister kills a king and a son kills his father. Its origin is gradually disappearing." When Confucius wrote the Book of Changes and Biography, it was the time of turmoil in the Spring and Autumn Period. But Confucius thought that "it didn't happen overnight"-it wasn't formed in one day. Zhuangzi, a Taoist, said, "Hurricanes begin at the end of Pingmei". Hurricanes are typhoons in Cantonese and Fujian dialects, and now westerners translate them into China pronunciation, also known as typhoons. We saw that the typhoon was so fierce, but when it first rose to the water, we only saw a piece of duckweed on the water, which moved a little, and then an airflow came up on the water and gradually became a typhoon. The Taoist view is that individuals, families, society, countries and what's going on in the world are all the same. If you don't care about small things, the big problems are all small things. "Hurricanes begin at the end of Pingping", and big storms come from small storms. Therefore, what Confucius said in the Book of Changes shows that the formation of what is going on in the world is not accidental, almost not accidental. I usually hear people say that "this opportunity is very accidental", but there is no accident.

According to the Yijing principle in China culture, it is believed that everything in the world has a cause and there are many factors. For example, someone found a dollar and said, "What a coincidence!" But careful analysis is by no means accidental. What is its antecedent? Because he walked out of the door, if he hadn't walked out of the door, he wouldn't have found a dollar. Or, is it accidental to sit at home and drop a dollar? But because he was sitting at home, he picked up the money when it fell! He didn't sit at home when he went out, so the money he dropped was not his, so sitting at home was also the reason for getting the money. So, these are all factors. "Its origin is coming gradually." Everything is slowly changing. The Book of Changes tells us that there are no mutations in the world. Only when we are not smart enough can we understand that some things are sudden. In fact, there is a reason lurking there. We understand the words of the Book of Changes. Confucius wrote Chunqiu at the right time, so he attached great importance to education. It was in those three or four hundred years that the social atmosphere was in chaos. We might as well quote the following people to know how chaotic the Spring and Autumn Period was.

Sima Guang said, "The doctors of the Jin Dynasty suddenly humiliated their monarch and divided the Jin State (referring to Zhao, Wei and Han). The emperor can't ask for it, but also spoil it and make it a vassal. This is a trivial department and can't be maintained, but it has been abandoned. The gift of the first king, do it! "

He also said: "the world is dominated by wisdom, so the sages are princes, and all countries are dead, while people are born." Not sad at all. "

Gu Yue said, "In the Spring and Autumn Period, sacrifices were still strict, and they were re-employed and enjoyed it, while the seven countries did nothing! In the Spring and Autumn Period, the clansmen were still talking about surnames, and the seven countries were silent! The country has not made friends, and scholars have not made master's degrees. This changed between 133 years, which is the lack of history. Later generations can push people, but they can't start with the emperor and integrate with the world. The way of civil and military affairs is exhausted! "

From the above records, it shows that the society at that time was in chaos during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. At that time, everyone paid attention to the struggle for rights, social order was chaotic and culture declined. Confucius was very worried about this kind of unrest, so he said that politics and power were useless, only "morality".

Are saints snobbish?

Speaking of "virtue", the third concept comes. Let's look at the history of China. Why do Confucianism admire Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu so much? There used to be an old friend who was dozens of years older than me. He is an old friend of mine. He comes from Sichuan and calls himself "Houhei" Li Zongwu. Everyone knows this man. He has a very good moral character and likes to swear on purpose. I advised him to swear less and not to advocate larceny. I said that human nature is such a thing, thick-skinned and black-hearted, but it is still covered with curtains. Why do you have to uncover it? He said, "Uncover it? You are mistaken, I am opening a rotten field and teaching people to look behind. " Li Zongwu is very skeptical about history. He said saints were unreliable. Why do you worship such successful people as Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu? Is there no saint without success? So he has an article called "Doubt about the Saint". This guy who wrote negative articles asked him why he did it. He said, "Brother, you don't know that I was in the same year as Einstein, who invented the theory of relativity in the same year and became famous all over the world." What about me? I haven't been a good leader yet, and I have to be naughty. "This man is great. He was over 60 years old when I met him. He doesn't eat all day and is always full. Good spirit and morality.

At this point, let's get back to the point. Why did Confucius praise Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, Wu and others? First, there is moral thought, but there is no virtue. Can only say that he is virtuous, but not necessarily virtuous. Morality is called "virtue" when there are moral thoughts and achievements in moral undertakings, and Tao and virtue cooperate.

Historically, both Taoism and Confucianism mentioned Yao Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen and Wu, because they were talking about "governing politics" and paying attention to the word "virtue". After Qin and Han dynasties, only deeds were told. The so-called "the rule of the three kings lies in virtue, and the ambition of the five tyrants lies in action." This is the difference between a king and a bully. If we wait, we can't even talk about hegemony. You didn't even get any grades. You steal chickens and dogs, you steal the country.

Although these words are simple and easy to explain, they have many meanings. Only when we understand it as a whole will we know its value.

You Mei love song

Confucius said: 300 poems. In a word, Confucius said: think naively.

So some people say that the Analects of Confucius should be rearranged. When they read the Analects of Confucius, they said, "Why do you suddenly talk about literature and poetry?" Isn't it just a mistake and a mess? It should be taken out and logically sorted out according to the western methods now. "I said," logic? ! Maybe logic and another series? "We must explain what they say like this. As we all know, The Analects of Confucius has been compiled very completely.

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