Month: August 2017

Today we are looking at a section from the first chapter of Zhu xi’s commentary on the analects of Confucius. Zhu Xi was a Song Dynasty Confucian who believed in the idea of combining Confucian and Daoist philosophy to create a new self cultivation school which was steeped in both Confucian ideas about social propriety and Daoist ideas about self development through meditation and cosmological philosophy.

We will now review a comment on a piece of original text from the Confucian analects.

original text:
有子曰：“其为人也孝弟，而好犯上者，鲜矣；不好犯上，而好作乱者，未之有也。

You zi said: “those who have the quality of being filial and fraternal and loves to become angry and aggressive are few.
Those who do not like to express anger and aggression and like to commit themselves to wildness do not exist!

Zhu Xi comment:
弟、好，皆去声。鲜，上声，下同。有子，孔子弟子，名若。

“di” and “hao” are pronounced with a leaving tone. “Xian” and “Shang” have a falling tone. You Zi is the disciple of Confucius, his name was Ruo.

善事父母为孝，善 事兄长为弟。犯上，谓干犯在上之人。鲜，少也。

Those who commit good acts for their parents are called filial, those who commit good acts for their siblings are called fraternal.
Anger and aggression is committed by people who find it easy to become angry.
They are few, as to be considered very fresh.

作乱，则为悖逆争斗之事矣。

“committing wild acts” refers to being malicious, going against, fighting and quarreling.

此言人能孝弟，则其心和顺，少好犯上，必不好作乱也。

This refers to people who are able to be filial and fraternal must be harmonious of heart and smooth in action, so few of them can become aggressive, and they cannot, as such, engage in wildness.

original text:
君子务本，本立而道生。孝 弟也者，其为仁之本与！”

“the gentleman takes on work as his basic,
when the basic is set upright, the way can be born. Filial and fraternal, this can be considered to be the root of humanity.

Zhu xi comment:

与，平声。务，专力也。本，犹根也。仁者，爱之理，心之德也。为仁，犹曰行仁。

“yu” has a flat tone. “work” refers to using strength.
“basic” refers to a root.
“humanity” refers to the principle of love and the virtue of the heart. To engage in humanity also refers to going forth in a humane fashion.

与者，疑辞，谦退不敢质言也。言君子凡事专用力于 根本，根本既立，则其道自生。

The person meeting with this, if questioning the edict (of parents and senior siblings) should humbly step back and not be so brave as to speak about the essence of the subject. The gentleman always uses his power to establish the basic (the basic needs of the family) and when the basic is set upright, the correct way will be born of its own accord.

若上文所谓孝弟，乃是为仁之本，学者务此，则仁道自此而生也。

The above article about filial and fraternal piety is actually the root of humanity. He who studies this must take it as his work and then the way of being humane will emerge of this.

程子曰：“孝弟，顺德也，故不好犯上，岂复有逆理乱常之事。

Cheng Zi said: “filial and fraternal is the virtue of smoothing, thus it isn’t easy to beome annoyed so who could return to going against the principle (of virtue) and engage in any wild action on a regular basis?

德 有本，本立则其道充大。孝弟行于家，而后仁爱及于物，所谓亲亲而仁民也。

Virtue has its root, its root is made upright and thus the Dao becomes vast and connected. The filial and fraternal child acts for his family and then achieved humane love for all beings. Thus he becomes a fatherly figure and acts humanely toward all people.

故为仁以孝弟为本。论性，则以仁为孝弟之本。”或问：“孝弟为仁之本，此是由孝弟 可以至仁否？”曰：“非也。

So people who act humanely take filiality and fraternity as their core principle. Speaking of its nature, humanity must take filial and fraternal piety as its root.
So it is asked: “if the root of humanity is found in filial and fraternal piety, does it mean that if one is filial and fraternal, they have achieved humanity?”
The answer no.

谓行仁自孝弟始，孝弟是仁之一事。谓之行仁之本则可，谓是仁之本则不可。

If someone acts humanely, they take filial and fraternal piety as the beginning. Filial and fraternal piety are one activity of humanity. So in order to act with humanity, they should have this as their basic. They cannot expect that this will automatically make them rooted in humanity.

盖仁是性也，孝弟是用也，性中只有个仁、义、礼、智四 者而已，曷尝有孝弟来。然仁主于爱，爱莫大于爱亲，故曰孝弟也者，其为仁之本与！”

if they have humanity as their true nature, then filial and fraternal piety is how they manifest it. From the centre of their nature they have humanity, law, courtesy, and wisdom, all four together. They can experience how this works through being filial and fraternal. The work of humanity is controlled by love, and there is no love as great as that of the family. Thus it is said that one who is filial and fraternal has the root of humanity.

今天晚上在看书的时候我才发现一个以前没想到的一件事了。读孔子的论语第一章的
“學而時習之，不亦說乎？有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎？人不知而不慍，不亦君子乎？” 我突然发现孔子很主动开心的心理。研究儒家的人应该已经很清楚孔子的快乐注意，不过，今天看我好吃惊了!

Tonight I saw something while reading the Analects of Confucius that I hadn’t previously thought about.
The first chapter of the Analects says:
“Study and constant review, will not this be a pleasure?
Friends who come from afar, is this not a joy?
People don’t know me and I am not angry, is this not the mark of a gentleman?”
Upon reading this, I suddenly came to the realization that Confucius is discussing the philosophy of happiness.
People who are already quite clear about Confucianism doubtless aleady know this, but anyway, I was surpised.

为什么吃惊呢？

So why was I surprised?

老实说我们西方的儒学研究一直没有道教研究的那么好。可能这里的中国古文研究家比较有兴趣道教的很神秘的哲学和宗教内容。我并不清楚了。反正，我们很多人看儒学看的不均。

To be honest, the quality of Confucian study in the west is a bit lacking in comparison to Daoism. Maybe the mystique of Daoist philosophy and religion are more appealing to the western mind, I don’t know for sure. In any event, many people outside of China look at Confucian thought incorrectly.

特别在有兴趣庄子的人很多认为孔子太严肃了，太保守了。所以，不看孔子，已经知道他不行。看孔子，那么，思想已经确定的，意见顽固了。

This is especially true among people who are interested in the Daoist philospher Zhuangzi. I have heard many people say that Confucius is too serious and too conservative, so even if they haven’t looked at Confucius, they already know he isn’t good. When they look at it, they have already formed a stubborn opinion and won’t change it.

那，我总认为自己不是那么顽固，而且我很喜欢儒家。虽然，我没有求儒家老师，不过我还是用了时间不短去研究各种各样的儒家文学和讲义。

I like to think that I’m not so stubborn, and certainly I like Confucian thought very much. Even though i haven’t sought out a teacher of the Confucian arts, I’ve still spent considerable time with the classical literature and explanations of the genre.

还是今天我看到了一件很吃惊的很愉快的事，我现在介绍一下：
But today I saw something that surprised and pleased me, and I would like to introduce it below:

论语第一章说：

“學而時習之，不亦說乎？有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎？人不知而不慍，不亦君子乎？”

the first passage of the Analects says “Study and constant review, will not this be a pleasure?
Friends who come from afar, is this not a joy?
People don’t know me and I am not angry, is this not the mark of a gentleman?”

本来我看的内容在孔子推荐三个习惯：

originally, I thought the meaning was that Confucius was suggesting three life habits:

1： 主动学习可以让人生活更美了。

1: focusing on study will make your life more beautiful.

2： 大方接受朋友可以让生活更有爱。

2: being generous when you receive fiends will make your life more full of love.

3： 做谦虚的人就是让你当君子了。

3: being a humble person will make you into morally superior human being.

那，这三个特点应该还是很对的，但是今天我第一次发现一个新的内容。这个内容就在这四个字：

“悦” “乐” “不恼”.

I still think these three points are correct, but today I also stumbled across one new meaning in the text.
This meaning is found in the following words:

“pleasure,” “joy” and “not angry.”

那么这些字代表什么呢？

So what are these words trying to convey?

“悦”和“乐”就是指指一个高兴的心里。不恼就是代表不容易嫌麻烦了，不容易生气。

“pleasurable” and “joyful” are meant to indicate a happy psychological world view. “not angry” suggests that we don’t find it easy to be bothered by the events around us.

这三个内容在一起表示一个很愉快的生活了。那么，孔子就是一个很开心的，很愉快的人。而且，他把他的快乐注意哲学主题放在他的书的最前面一张，所以我们可以说他最重要的基础都在这里开始了。

These three things together illustrate a happy life, so Confucius must have been a happy and joyful person.
Also, he put his philosophy of contentment right at the first passage of the fist section of his book, so we must assume that his most fundamental teachings all spring from this philosophy.

那我以前也说他主动的“好学习”,“好客”，和做大方的君子的三个内容。这些是怎么了解呢？

I still think that my original idea about it being important to study well, be generous with guests, and to be a gentleman are right, but how should we interpret them now?

简单说，这些是快乐生活的基本功了！

Simply put, these are the basic practices of a happy life.

孔子认为，你如果想做一个很满意的人，那你就需要养这些好的习惯。

Confucius believed that in order to be a contended person, you must first cultivate good habits.

我是这么想的，

世界上有好学习的人，也有不好学习的人。有大方接朋友的人，也有小气的人。有理解对象的人，也有贪心名利的人。世界上每种都有。一看人才可以了解谁开心不 开心。在生活中你的习惯跟你的生活方式是很相同的东西。习惯没好，生活方式也不是很好，可能发生的事情也会不完美，就容易痛哭了。

So here is what I think:
This world has people who are good at study and people who are not. There are people who are gracious with friends and people who are petty and small. There are people who go forth trying to understand others, and those who are only greedy to gain their own benefit and fame. In our world, we have every kind of person, and often, all you have to do is look once to see who is happy and not happy.
In life, our habits and our lifestyle are inextricable things.
If you don’t have good habits, you won’t have a good lifestyle.
If something nasty happens, life won’t be perfect and you will find it easy to become embittered.

习惯好，那生活的最基本的基础就掌握了。以后，不论你的生活幸运不幸运，你还是有最基本的一些能力做好事情了。那就怎么没有一个挺愉快的生活呢？

If you have good habits, then you will have mastered the basics of life. After this, it doesn’t matter if you are lucky or not, you already have the most basic ability to engage in beneficial activities, so how could you live anything other than a happy life?

孔子第一章在告诉你怎么用好习惯当一个高兴的君子。那就太好了!

The first Chapter of Confucius is simply telling us that cultivating good habits is the way to be a delighted gentleman, and that is just great!

This article is the first attempt at what I hope to be an ongoing series of articles about daoism, tea and other subjects written both in English and Chinese. Chinese is not my first language and so this series of articles is also meant to be a chance for me to practice writing in Chinese in hopes of eventually being able to write coherent and interesting Chinese language articles.
As such, please feel free to critique my writing, as it will help me to make progress as I develop this skill.
下面的文章是我第一次发英文和中文结合的论文。
中文本来不是我的母语，所以我希望朋友们可以帮助我看一下我写的东西，推荐怎么把它改成的更专业.
谢谢了!

孔杰老师回答朋友的问题：

朋友们问：
什么是丹田？

孔杰老师回答：

最近一些学仙佛家的同学问我了“什么是丹田？”

让我一会儿考虑怎么回答他们。

丹田在中国的道术方面可能有很多不同的意思。

我们要是想了解丹田真正的意思，可能我们必须先把我们学习的艺术主题说的稍微清

楚一点。

Recently some classmates studying the immortality school of meditation asked me

the question “what is Dantian?” (the elixir field). It gave me pause to think about

how to answer them.

In the Chinese Daoist arts, Dantian has many different meanings.

If we want to talk about the real meaning of Dantian, we must first be somewhat

specific about the field of study under discussion.

每种道家类似的功夫都有“丹田”这两个字，但是在原来学习基础的时候，可能它们的

意思会不同。

Every type of art in Daoism has its own interpretation of Dantian, and when first

studying basic methods we might think they are different from one another.

比如说，练武术的人可能认为丹田是在我们腰部，脐下一点的一款肌肉。那这个就是

肉体身上的一个肌肉的下丹田。练武术的人必须用这个身上的丹田为了把身体上下的

动作连在一起。

For instance, people who practice the martial arts might believe that dantian is a

collection of muscle in the centre of our waist, just under the belly button. This is

what we might call the physical aspect of the lower Dantian.

People who practice the martial arts need to use this area of the body to help them

connect the upper and lower aspects of their bodies while executing movements.

但是，学习气功的人可能以为丹田还是不一定找到在身体中间的肌肉。他们可能认为

丹田是我们身形的气体。

However, people who do Qi Gong might believe that the Dantian isn’t something

that we find in the physical centre of the body, rather it is associated with the

energy of the physical form.

这个气体可能会发生在很多地方。或者这个气体最主要是在我们的头部，胸部，和腰

部三个地方。这些丹田在气功学也都是很对的。

This energetic body could emerge in many different places, or it could be the three

major centres of the head, chest, and lower abdomen which make up what are

called the “three elixir fields.”

These Dantian in Qi Gong are all correctly defined as such.

最后一个例子是内丹。练内丹打坐的人对丹田有很多不同的了解释义。丹田有可能跟

武术和气功说的丹田一样，也可能代表人类和宇宙整个气。那么释义真的是特别丰

富。

As a final consideration, let’s take the internal alchemy school as an example.

People who practice internal alchemy seated meditation have many different

interpretations of the word dantian. Maybe the Dantian is the same one practiced

in martial arts and Qi Gong, or perhaps it refers to the entire energetic body of

humanity and the universe. The different ways of interpreting it are tremendously

complex.

所以介绍丹田是什么物真的不是那么简单。丹田代表太多东西了！

So understanding exactly what a Dantian is is really not that simple. Dantian

seems to refer to too many different things!

但是，丹田也有一个非常对的释义，说明这个以后大家都可以十分明白丹田正宗的意

思。丹田代表气。哪里有气那里就是丹田。哪里没有气，那里不是丹田。

However, there is one completely correct interpretation of Dantian and after saying

it, all of our classmates and friends ought to be totally clear about its true meaning.

Dantian refers to energy and wherever there is energy, there is dantian. Wherever

there isn’t energy, there also isn’t dantian.

气是什么呢？

不要思考的太复杂。气是大自然的生命最基本的本质。有气可以有生活，没有气，那里就死了。

So what is energy?

Don’t spend too much time complicating your thought processes over this. Energy

is the core characteristic of all living things in nature. If you have energy, you can

live, if you don’t have energy, you will die.

所以学习丹田，气，生命的人一定从“活”开始学习基础的。“活”不是一个植物，也不

是一个有形的东西。活是无形无相的一种生活的精神。所有有命的生灵，有肉体，植

物等等的生物都有这个生活的精神。有的越多越有一个荣华的感觉存在。

Therefore if we want to study dantian, qi, or life, we must start from the

term “living” in order to understand the basic concept of our study. Life

isn’t an organism and it doesn’t have a specific shape or form. You can’t

isolate it and look at it or perceive it, but it is contained in the basic spirit

of all living things. Anything that is alive, has a body, a person, a plant or

anything all have this basic energy. The more that something has it, the

more it seems to grow healthy and luxuriantly.

虽然精神是看不到的，还是我们看一个人的动作都可以很清楚他有没有生活的精神存

在。比如说，一个小孩儿的眼睛很有精神，我们就说他聪明了。要是感觉累累，傻傻

的，那当然就精神不对。

Even though you can’t see its basic energy, you can still see quite clearly whether

someone does or doesn’t have very much spirit.

For instance, a young child with bright eyes will often be called clever, while a tired

looking, dull child seems to have a dis-spirited look.

那么，在介绍丹田到底是什么，我们不可忘记，我们在说的东西不是一个可以看到在

身上的地方，它就是一种无形无相的生命力量，而且我们全身体都有丹田，都有气，

都有生活。除了生活以外，整个世界和宇宙都是一个大丹田。那么我们不应该问丹田

在哪里。我们应该问丹田不在哪里？这个问题非常重要，因为哪里没有丹田，那里就

没有生命的。

So when we think about what dantian really is, we can’t forget that the quality we

are trying to identify isn’t part of the body, it is a type of formless, imageless

energetic strength and we all have it in our entire bodies. So we shouldn’t ask

“where is dantian,” we would be better to ask where it isn’t.

This question is very important because anywhere that doesn’t have dantian

doesn’t have life.

研究哪里有命，哪里死亡是生命，神仙，和各种科学中最基本和最重要的基础主题。

要是可以发现生活是从哪儿发生的，那就可以得到世界众人的希望，做一个长生不老

的人，保持自己的精神，成真人，得仙而已。

Researching where life comes from and what is dead is the central concern of the

study of life, longevity, and every major type of scientific research.

If we can discover where our vital energy comes from, then we may be able to

grasp every living person’s deepest wish, to be a long living person who does not

become feeble with age and to protect our fundamental essence, become

enlightened and ascend the mundane realm.

分享这个理论为了让同学和朋友们找到方向做一个更快乐的生活!

谢谢。

please share this to help friends and classmates find their direction and live a

better, happier life.

Thank you!