加密数字货币交易所-《论语》详解：给所有曲解孔子的人-子曰：君子不器

The Analects of Confucius: “The gentleman is not a utensil.”

Yang Bojun: Confucius said: “The gentleman is not like a vessel [with only a specific purpose].”

Qian Mu: The master said: “The gentleman is not like a piece of equipment [used for a particular purpose].”

Li Zehou: Confucius said: “The gentleman is not a tool.”

Detailed explanation:

The above and common interpretations all originate from Zhu Xi. Zhu Xi said: “Tools are each suited to their use and cannot be interchangeable. A person who has achieved virtue is complete in ritual, thus their use is comprehensive and not limited to a single talent or skill.” Such an explanation led to the later flourish of superficial, impractical pursuits of so-called versatile talents, ultimately becoming one of the roots of national decline. The so-called versatile talent is actually not truly versatile, but merely self-deception. This thinking pattern has become a pursuit and a badge for so-called scholars and Confucianists. Even today, charlatans continue to peddle the nonsense of being able to understand everything. The so-called ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ person merely assumes the world obeys a common, invisible or visible hand; once grasped, the person becomes a sage, a god, or omniscient. This foolish notion was popular among Song Confucians, all stemming from a misunderstanding of “The gentleman is not a utensil.” According to their logic, “utensil” cannot be a “gentleman,” and since corrupt scholars think of themselves as gentlemen, they must pretend to be “not a utensil,” that is, to “achieve virtue and be universally useful,” grasping some tangible or intangible hand—be it the self or God. As a result, China was ruined by these worthless pretenders. But this tendency is deeply rooted in the Chinese psyche; whenever there is an opportunity, it revives. The fundamental flaw of this East Asian ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ self-deception begins with a misunderstanding of the I Ching. Daoist and other philosophies also stem from this misunderstanding. From this ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ self-deception, the phrase “Man models the Earth, Earth models the Heaven, Heaven models the Dao, and the Dao models Nature” reflects this flawed pattern. Confucius and Confucianism resolutely oppose such models. However, starting from the Song Dynasty, due to the decline of Confucianism after the flourishing of Buddhism and Daoism during the Sui and Tang dynasties, a group of ignorant people, who were both masters and servants, with no real understanding of Confucianism, Buddhism, or Daoism, first used Dao to interpret Buddhism, then disguised themselves with Zen Buddhism, and later began to suppress Zen and Daoist teachings. From then on, the corrupt Confucians turned Confucianism into the most shameless group in Chinese cultural history.

In Western tradition, such so-called versatile talents have no market. Of course, the West has many encyclopedic figures, especially before the 19th century. Truly learned scholars were encyclopedic. But Western encyclopedic knowledge is not like the Chinese corrupt ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ type; it was possible because scientific development was still in its early stages, and knowledge was relatively limited and simple. A person could have in-depth knowledge of most disciplines, which was not difficult. Today, encyclopedic expertise is nearly impossible. Even within a single academic field, such as mathematics, new branches constantly emerge, and no one can be deeply knowledgeable in all of them. One can grasp the broad strokes of mathematics, but delving into specific problems is impossible. The same applies to other disciplines. This is a main reason why experts are popular today. The flaws are obvious: so-called experts form small groups, which increasingly resemble church organizations in Catholicism, with corruption and decay not hard to imagine. Humanity’s predicament lies within this dilemma. The East’s ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ self-deception and the West’s eventual church-like self-torment form two human predicaments. One result of Western churchification is the scientification of theology, while the fundamental cause of social sciences lies in capitalism’s unification based on capital. The East’s ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ self-deception is essentially a remnant of shamanistic culture. When charlatans use so-called Chinese civilization to oppose Western scientific hegemony, they are merely using remnants of primate tails to oppose the same grand illusions of divine phallus. The East’s ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ shamanistic culture is just a leftover primate tail; Western scientific theologies are like divine phalluses that die from excess. Both are equally ugly, a farcical duel of sticks.

What is a “utensil”? The Book of Changes (Yijing) says: “Form is called utensil.” “Utensil” is “form”; what is “form”? “Form” is “appearance.” What does “The gentleman is not a utensil” mean? It means “The gentleman is not appearance.” “The Way does not differ, nor does it conspire,” and a gentleman who follows the “Way of the sage” must “hear, see, learn, and act” without “conspiring” with appearance. The issues of the East’s primate tail and the West’s divine phallus all lie in their self-identity. The East’s primate tail believes that once the tail is understood, everything stick-like can be understood; ‘one understanding, hundred abilities’ is a false appearance of self-deception, ultimately leading the East to thoroughly become primate tails. The West’s divine phallus believes that as long as life and the phallus continue, the world can be fully divine phallusified; everything, whether stick or not, can be divine phallusified. This is a typical narcissistic self-torment, believing that everything can be divine phallusified, which ultimately leads the West to become thoroughly divine phallus. Unfortunately, the most ‘yang’ imagined tools often mean complete impotence in reality. Whether the world is a phallus is not determined by the phallus itself, nor by self-deception and self-torment related to sticks. Self-deception, self-torment, and all self-identity stem from human greed and fear, from their “famine,” from the vicious cycle of “famine, plowing, and eating,” all the same kind of thing. This cycle exists not only materially and socially but also in the human soul. The so-called “heart field” is sown with the seeds of “famine,” and people self-identity and cultivate it, then produce illusory fruits from self-degradation and self-consumption. In the end, it is still “famine”; the illusory fruits become the seeds of “famine,” perpetuating the vicious cycle. Such a society produces such a human heart; vice versa. A society caught in the vicious cycle of “famine, plowing, and eating” also contains these hearts, and vice versa. The gentleman does not conspire, the gentleman is not a utensil; the gentleman is different, not conspire, not utensil, not different—this is the vicious cycle of “famine, plowing, and eating.”

Chán Zhong’s straightforward translation of Zen talk