9/25/2009

For all Chinese from ancient times to the present, what Confucius said is TRUTH


It's quite a common punch line in a Western film that someone quotes a mysterious oriental-ish saying, and ends it by saying "Confucius said it."

And most of the time, it actually was not. So you can imagine how people were really lost -- especially in the Chinese speaking countries.


Most of these legendary saying were said to have been quoted from the Analectslúnyŭ-- a book of collective teaching and conversations between Confucius and his disciples during his 'teaching tour'.

So for the sake of setting the record straight, let's take a look at the very beginning of this great book to conclude the introduction concerning the Confucius Day.

The name of the first chapter is xuéér, which means "learning", and the very first verse is:



yuē
Confucius said


xuéérshízhï
To learn and to practice/review from time to time

yuè
Isn't it a pleasure?”

péngzìanfänglái
To have friend(s) coming from afar


Isn't it happy?

rénzhïéryùng
To not be upset when other don't know (about) you

jünzĭ
“Isn't that what a gentleman is?

The word means 'also', 'too', so the phrases for "Isn't it a pleasure" and "Isn't it happy" when translated more in a word for word manner, would be "Isn't it also is a pleasure?" and "Isn't it happy, too?". But for Chinese speakers, this word here actually is to emphasize the situation rather than as an agreement to the prior situation. works as a question mark. And zhï here functions as a pronoun "it", referring to the things learned.

The most commonly quoted phrases of this verse are the first four sentences; or to be precise, the first two pairs of sentences. The first pair can be perceived as the best suck up lines for teachers and anyone who loves to enlighten others with his/her 'wisdom' -- showing how much you enjoy learning from him/her and that you simply have to keep practicing and learning it to keep enjoying it. The next pair is very useful in welcoming friends (from afar, of course). If your friends are of Chinese background, it shows how well learned you are with their culture; if your friends are not, it shows you are very well learned. It never hurts to drop a little bit of Confucius on the dinning table, so learn it, memorize it, and use it properly.

The success is only a right quote away and this is from me, not Confucius.

Find out more, please see confucius-- Not Confusion-s

2 comments:

  1. It never ceases to amaze me how different Classical and Modern Chinese are. I've been learning Chinese for the past 8 or 9 years but I still have trouble understanding Classical Chinese.

    Do you know of any good books or online courses for learning Classical Chinese?

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  2. to Kelly; Yes they are quite different. Honestly speaking, if you want to learn Chinese origin, Chinese ancient literature or calligraphy, traditional Chinese is the only choice. After all, Modern Chinese is simply for convenience.

    Not knowing what to recommend, but I will find some for you.

    ReplyDelete