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Documentary, BBC: Genius Of The Ancient World. Ep 3- Confucius
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00:00Since the dawn of civilization, the forces of nature and the whims of gods held sway over humanity.
00:13But two and a half thousand years ago, humankind experienced a profound transformation.
00:21Suddenly, there were new possibilities.
00:27This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief.
00:32This is an ethic which does not rely on the gods.
00:35The world is now explained in terms of natural forces.
00:39We are now responsible for our own destiny.
00:46Upheavals across the globe sparked an ambitious vision of what humans could achieve, spearheaded by three trailblazers.
00:56Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha, great thinkers from the ancient world whose ideas still shape our own lives.
01:06Is wealth a good thing?
01:09How do you create just a certain?
01:13How do I live a good life?
01:16By daring to think the unthinkable, they laid the foundations of our modern world.
01:23I've always been intrigued by the fact that these men, who lived many thousands of miles apart, seemed almost spontaneously, within a hundred years of one another, to come up with such radical ways of thinking.
01:37So, what was going on?
01:42I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas, to understand what set them in motion.
01:49In this program, I'm on the trail of that quintessential eastern sage, Confucius.
01:56He had a mission, but many people at that time did not agree with him.
02:01His vision was modelled on the power of the past and the family.
02:05He believed that education could transform both individuals and society.
02:10He's talking about your state of mind, your feelings.
02:15But in the 20th century, Confucius was declared an enemy of communism.
02:21So now, he should be out of favour, but that hardly seems to be the case.
02:27This is the longest continuous civilisation in the world, and Confucius has a huge role in it.
02:33It's so amazing to be so close to them. My heart is beating.
02:45In 551 BC, an elderly ex-soldier from the ancient state of Lu faced a grave predicament.
03:01His family line was in danger of ending.
03:04He needed a son to continue his name.
03:07Someone who'd be able to perform the vital rituals to honour him and his ancestors.
03:15The old man took a young wife.
03:18We're told that she went to a sacred mountain and prayed hard for a boy.
03:24The son she bore would become known as Master Kong.
03:28In Chinese, Kong Fuzi.
03:31In the West, we call him Confucius.
03:40Confucius was born into one of the most advanced civilisations in the world.
03:45The ancient Chinese were innovators in art, metalwork, agriculture and weaponry.
03:57And from around 1000 BC, they developed a sophisticated political system.
04:02A network of vassal lords who bore allegiance to one king.
04:06But by the time Confucius was growing up, stability had turned to chaos.
04:15This was an age when all of ancient China was trapped in a ruthless cycle of war.
04:21Tribal invasions from the west, along with rebellion amongst the lords, splintered the empire into independent states.
04:34All vying for power.
04:40Spurred on by a kind of arms race, now that cast iron meant that weapons could be mass produced.
04:50Families attacked families.
04:52This was total war.
04:54This collapse in society would become the catalyst for Confucius' groundbreaking philosophy.
05:03The oldest record of Confucius' life and ideas, the Analects, were compiled about a century after his death.
05:17These fragments of his conversations, along with other later histories, give us clues to his life story.
05:26We're told that Confucius was just three when his father died.
05:31Old aristocracy, he'd fallen on hard times, one of the victims of the turmoil of the age.
05:38Leaving Confucius' mother to raise her son on her own, in a kind of genteel polity.
05:47Interestingly, it seems that education was Confucius' lifeline.
05:52Somehow, probably through a mix of private teachers and home schooling,
05:56and you suspect the sheer grit and determination of his mother,
06:01Confucius was taught history, poetry and ritual.
06:12While other children played with toys, he's said to have acted out sacred rituals by laying out cups and bowls.
06:19Now, these weren't just empty gestures, a bit of spiritual theatre.
06:26The kinds of rituals that Confucius learned played a crucial role in the ancient Chinese worldview.
06:33A worldview in which order and harmony, both on Earth and in the cosmos,
06:38were considered essential goals if life on Earth was to continue.
06:49The ancient rites that young Confucius knew were performed here at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing,
07:03right up until the 20th century.
07:08The Chinese had a particular religious outlook,
07:11which meant that these rituals weren't directed towards a deity.
07:16There is no creator God.
07:19There's nothing like the idea of a supreme power that dreams everything into being.
07:25What it posits instead is this notion that there are two cosmic forces.
07:30They're not even really divine.
07:32They're just natural forces, a bit like gravity in a sense.
07:35And on the temple here, you have perhaps the most common,
07:40the most powerful symbols of these two great forces,
07:43and that is the dragon, the heavenly force,
07:46and the phoenix is the female, the coal, the earthly force.
07:50And they are locked in perpetual struggle.
07:54They try to overcome each other.
07:56And it's this incredible dance of power out of which all life pours.
08:03So what's humanity's role in all of this?
08:05We're fundamental to this.
08:07You've got these two great cosmic forces, and our role is to keep the balance.
08:12And we do this through ritual.
08:15And that's what this kind of temple complex was built for.
08:18This is where the ruler would come to make offerings to rebalance these two forces.
08:24And it wasn't just for the rulers.
08:26It took place in every single temple, every local shrine, right down to the household.
08:30Sounds like a potent and a pervasive world view that Confucius is being brought up with.
08:36Absolutely, it's the only world view he knows.
08:38As he reached adulthood, it looks as though Confucius grew to appreciate the gaping disparity
08:52between the ancient ideal of order and the reality of life subject to the chaos that raged all around him.
08:59His search for a solution to that intractable problem at the very heart of Chinese society would prove to be his life's work.
09:16Fortunately, conditions across the ancient world were nourishing new ways of thinking.
09:22Improvement in agriculture, increased trade and growing urbanization meant that some in society were less tied to a life of subsistence.
09:32Creating the opportunity for men like Socrates, the Buddha and Confucius to develop their ideas.
09:39The scale of change, economic and technological, is reflected in archaeological remains.
09:48Like this monumental grain store.
09:52Advances in technology from the Iron Age onwards led to an increase in agricultural yields that were stored in massive pits like this.
10:13Suddenly, for ordinary people, because they had enough food, life just wasn't a grinding cycle of a kind of hand-to-mouth existence.
10:22Obviously, stores like this provided grain, but they also gave another great gift, time to think.
10:34When Confucius was about 20, we're told he landed a bureaucratic job, managing grain stores like this.
10:40But his mind was occupied by the turmoil of the day.
10:46Looking around him, it seemed obvious to Confucius that humanity needed help.
10:52And how he responded is considered a first in Chinese history.
10:57He began to engage in systematic philosophical inquiry.
11:10One thing I like about Confucius is the sense that you get that he had a kind of natural curiosity that he felt compelled to explore and to try to understand the world.
11:24And in his early 20s, he decided to leave his home state of Lou and get on the road.
11:30Travelling west, he would have eventually met the Great Yellow River.
11:42I think we had to imagine him at this point in his life as a kind of ethnographer, going from one place to another with open eyes and an open mind, gathering together experiences and encounters.
11:53The Analects described Confucius meeting people who'd renounced civilised society and lived amongst nature.
12:07These recluses were the forerunners of Taoism, that other great belief system of ancient China.
12:14They believed in something known as the Way.
12:17Could you explain to me what exactly the Way is?
12:37Is it possible for humans to influence or control the Way?
12:42The Taoists believed that developed society diverted us from the Way.
13:04Society was artificial, something people imposed on the natural, spontaneous way of the universe.
13:10Only by reconnecting with the forces of nature could we achieve harmony once again.
13:19Confucius reacted to Taoist belief with a kind of frustrated indignation.
13:24We can't go and live with the birds and the beasts.
13:27Am I not a man among men?
13:29If the Way prevailed in the world, there'd be no need for me to change it.
13:33Confucius' search for solutions to the problems of his day took on a more practical, political dimension.
13:43For him, the Way wasn't an intangible cosmic force.
13:47Instead, he saw it as the harmony that could be brought about by a perfectly ordered society.
13:55Something attainable by human action.
13:59It was a claim the Taoists thought the height of arrogance.
14:02This critical dispute is embodied in one legendary encounter.
14:10Confucius is said to have come here, the city of Luoyang.
14:14As he was studying in the state archives, he met an older man.
14:24And they struck up a philosophical discussion.
14:30As Confucius got up to leave, the old man chastised him.
14:33Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit and wild will.
14:42These are of no advantage to you.
14:48The enigmatic old man was none other than Lao Tse, credited as the founder of Taoism.
14:56Whether it's true or not, this pairing with such a great figure
14:59reveals the iconic status Confucius would later reach.
15:04And it tells us something else.
15:06That setting in the archive gives us a clue to Confucius' methods.
15:12For him, solutions to contemporary problems lay in a close study of what had gone before.
15:19The past was a kind of reservoir of truth.
15:29Ever since he was a boy, he'd been schooled in ancient texts.
15:33Now as a man, they became the inspiration for and the very foundation of his philosophy.
15:42Recent discoveries have shed new light on these classic texts of Chinese history.
15:47800 bamboo slips, which contain the earliest evidence of Confucius' words.
15:53They were found in 1993 in the tomb of an old nobleman.
16:00Amazing. And they date back to when?
16:03Oh, these were dated to the 4th century BCE, roughly 100 years after Confucius.
16:10And it says something like, set your mind on the way and be virtuous.
16:20Do everything in accordance with humanity.
16:24Not only the earliest words of Confucius, but beautiful words too.
16:29Wow.
16:30They were so amazing because they provide us new information on early classics that were very important to Confucius himself.
16:40And for example, this particular slip mentioned about the classics he would have read.
16:48Ah.
16:49The book of Oats, ritual, and music.
16:53The book of history is very important because it recorded figures such as the Duke of Zhou,
16:59and the early kings of the Western Zhou, that was about 500 years before Confucius time.
17:06And these men were able to lead a society of harmony.
17:10Confucius found in the words of the book of history what he was looking for.
17:26An ideal model where social and political harmony had prevailed,
17:31engineered by the almost superhumanly sage rulers of the early Zhou dynasty.
17:36In particular, the Duke of Zhou.
17:42When his brother, King Wu died, the Duke could have seized the throne.
17:47But it's reported that instead he acted loyally, ruling as a regent for his nephew, the king's son.
17:54And then, when the boy grew up, fairly and faithfully, he handed over the reins of power.
18:00Whether these accounts were entirely true is a moot point.
18:12But Confucius saw huge potential in them.
18:17This golden age was robust evidence that social order was possible.
18:22By following the practices and the examples of the early Zhou, by reviving the past,
18:29there could be solutions to the problems of the present.
18:33It is the great thing about golden ages. They're very comforting.
18:37We believe that if humanity was capable of wonderful things in the past,
18:41we can achieve them once again.
18:42Confucius believed that early Zhou society was the ideal manifestation of his concept of the way.
18:59To recreate that harmony, society needed to return to their high standards,
19:05especially in terms of ritual.
19:07Confucius was convinced that the ancient rites had been corrupted.
19:13In order to restore the golden age, he would have to reinstate proper ritual.
19:25Here, in Confucius' hometown of Chufu, is a temple dedicated to the master.
19:31It's the ultimate place of pilgrimage for many of his devotees.
19:34Mr. Kong traces his ancestry back to Confucius, and often leads rituals that his illustrious relatives set such store by.
19:47And I believe that there is a doctrine of the rest of the past.
19:48If you learn to return it, you will arrive every year.
19:49To this day, even if you go to the periphery, you will arrive every year.
19:50To the incredible moment, in Confucius'وجaises and the ninth place.
19:53From the temple necessities and the incarnation of thebanic and the exp grinding
19:59you will arrive every year.
20:02And, in the temple necessities, every step is very straightforward.
20:04In the temple necessities in the temple is always acceptable.
20:09The passage of holy robles.
20:10In order to complete the temple necessities of this tradition,
20:14...to整理我们的衣冠,到我们的姿态,包括我们的心情...
20:18...这也是中国传统话当中非常非常重要的一部分.
20:28But ritual here has always meant more than just ceremony.
20:32It's an all-encompassing ethos that shapes every aspect of people's behaviour...
20:38...including what we might call etiquette and customs.
20:44It's so important in our everyday work.
20:48When we first meet our friends, we ask each other...
20:53...比如说我们的握手...
20:56...我们的握手握两下...
20:58...如果是...
21:04...在所有的公共场合的时候,我们每个人要有礼节,礼貌...
21:08...要懂得社会的功德,我们不要去妨碍别人的利益...
21:12...而去给别人带来不方便的事情.
21:18It seems that Confucius threw himself into understanding...
21:21...and perfecting the rights of the early Zhou.
21:24Confucius was nothing if not a stickler for detail.
21:30We hear he wouldn't even sit on a mat unless it was dead straight.
21:34But there seems to have been a kind of beauty in his precision.
21:38Just listen to these wonderful words describing him.
21:41His expression was serious, his step brisk.
21:46When with his clasped hands he bowed to his colleagues on left and right...
21:51...his robes moved evenly in front and back.
21:54His hurrying advance was a glide.
21:57Confucius set out to transmit the importance of proper ritual.
22:00...promoting his ideas right across the land.
22:04One account describes his rather hostile reception...
22:06...from a government advisor from the state of Qi.
22:08Confucius lays such stress on appearance, costume, elaborate etiquette and codes of behaviour...
22:14...that it would take generations to learn his rule.
22:18One lifetime wouldn't be enough.
22:20To this day, Confucius is often criticised for his pedantic attachment...
22:24...to intricate forms of antiquated ritual.
22:27And he's also known as an antiquated ritual.
22:29He's also known as an antiquated ritual.
22:31He's also known as an antiquated ritual.
22:33He's also known as an antiquated ritual.
22:35He's known as an antiquated ritual.
22:37He's known as an antiquated ritual.
22:40One account describes his rather hostile reception from a government advisor from the state of Qi.
22:43Confucius lays such stress on appearance, costume, elaborate etiquette and codes of behaviour...
22:47...but what his critics didn't understand is that he discovered something radically new...
22:53...within these ancient rites.
22:55Something which marked a critical shift in his thinking.
23:09When Confucius was in his mid-twenties, his mother died.
23:13For three years, he dutifully carried out ancestral rites in her honour.
23:19But he would breathe new life and new meaning into these traditions.
23:25How beautiful.
23:26So these are things that would actually have been used in ancestor worship.
23:38Exactly.
23:39Ancient Chinese believed that ghosts and spirits continue to exist after the ancestors died.
23:45So it's important to offer them food and wine in this kind of vessels.
23:52In particular, those made of very expensive bronze.
23:56And everyone would be really engaging in the ritual to continue the kind of relationship they had before.
24:06Do we know what Confucius thought about all of this?
24:08Well, Confucius still believed that ancestors were still a very important part.
24:14But he started to shift the emphasis towards the living.
24:19By saying that it means that it's important for us to develop this kind of reverence...
24:26...and the proper relationship while they're still alive.
24:30As he said in the Analects very clearly that if you don't know how to serve the living...
24:36...how would you know how to serve the dead?
24:39That's really interesting.
24:40He's saying actually focus first on the here and now, on those who are still around you in the day to day...
24:45...before you start to think about those who are long dead.
24:48You were so right. It's no longer just about objects like this.
24:52It's about your state of mind, your feelings, your love and sincerity...
24:59...from inside that you would have towards these people around you.
25:10Confucius realised that ritual brought out positive emotions in us.
25:15But his really big revelation was that this could permanently change who we are.
25:23Habitually performing the rituals of history with the right attitude and sincerity could transform our mindset.
25:31Virtuous feelings could make virtuous beings.
25:36Ritual, for him, was not just the way you do things exactly follow the traditional and rules.
25:45But even more importantly, you got to have something inside.
25:50You got to have reverence, respect, because this was the way to cultivate your inside goodness...
25:58...inside these kind of qualities.
26:01And the whole person would be transformed down inside.
26:05I mean, that sounds really radical.
26:08So he's saying you need to do things properly, but they're not just a mechanical action.
26:13It affects who you are inside, sort of psychologically.
26:17Yes, yes, exactly.
26:18Not only just bring order to the social and life, but also to create a new psychological meaning there...
26:27...and try to cultivate these good human qualities.
26:32Yeah.
26:33It's interesting because he doesn't sell himself as an invader, but he was.
26:37Yes, he was.
26:38I think Confucius said he was the only transmitter.
26:41He transmitted the ancient culture to today, to the future.
26:46But actually, what he did was innovation.
26:49These new things are really coming from his reinterpretation of something that already exists, such as ritual.
26:58Nourishing virtue lay at the core of Confucius's vision.
27:04And he saw transformative opportunities in everyday rituals.
27:08How we speak, how we dress, and how we eat.
27:12But one that was particularly close to his heart was music.
27:17He's said to have played the zither and the sounding chimes.
27:21This was a time and place where music was all around, played on totally wonderful things...
27:33...like this monumental set of bells that dated just after Confucius's death.
27:38Music was played to accompany ritual in temples and homes.
27:43So if you listen to these, then you'll be hearing the sounds that would have surrounded Confucius during his lifetime.
27:50Confucius was convinced that music had the power to harmonise, to transform and perfect an individual.
28:06Basically, this is art as therapy, two and a half thousand years before we invent the phrase.
28:12Music
28:30This practical application of philosophical ideas in day-to-day life is something that really marks out Confucius...
28:37...as well as those other game-changing philosophers, the Buddha and Socrates.
28:42As a philosopher, you don't just indulge in abstract musings.
28:47You develop a robust delivery mechanism for your theories.
28:51Ideas have to have traction and they have to have tangible impact.
28:56Confucius was a practical man.
29:00He'd been spurred into action by the bellicose times into which he was born.
29:05His philosophy would only truly be a success if he could effect change on a grand scale.
29:12Confucius came to think this.
29:16That shaping and cultivating moral individuals was the key to creating a stable social and political order.
29:23By figuring out what made a good person, you could make a good society.
29:29And so his mission was this.
29:32To teach people how to be virtuous in a world of political disorder and moral decay.
29:39Confucius had given himself a mountain to climb.
29:57How to instill virtue in society, when society's moral contract was so broken, was Confucius' big challenge.
30:06He was to find inspiration from a familiar and enduring institution.
30:12The family.
30:14Hello.
30:26Wow.
30:27That was quite some welcome.
30:29Confucius noted how families are organised along hierarchical lines with fixed responsibilities.
30:37From birth, we learn our place within key relationships.
30:41Husband, wife.
30:44Father, son.
30:46Older brother, younger brother.
30:53Recognising...
30:54Oh, thanks.
30:55Thank you very much.
30:57Recognising your...
31:00Oh, thank you.
31:01Recognising your place within these relationships and fulfilling your mutual responsibilities within that hierarchy,
31:10taught essential moral values.
31:13From the family, we developed a sense of loyalty, of honesty, of duty, of respect, of filial responsibility.
31:22Basically, to love those around us.
31:29Confucius saw that the concept of family was a potent model and a potential solution for society's ills.
31:36The family showed how authority could be both exercised and submitted to, fairly and productively.
31:45Not through intimidation, but through mutual assent.
31:49The moral values learnt in the family, affection and care directed downwards and loyalty and obedience directed above,
32:02had the potential to transform everyone.
32:05But Confucius saw that arguably their greatest value lay in relation to the glaring problem at the heart of society,
32:12the waywardness of its rulers.
32:28This magnificent sword embodies what, for Confucius, was the fundamental problem with Chinese leadership.
32:35This was made when Confucius was alive, and it tells us all about itself.
32:42There's an inscription here that reads,
32:44Belonging to King Gojian of Yue, made for his personal use.
32:51Now, this is obviously a fabulously deluxe object, and Confucius wouldn't have had a problem with that per se.
32:58He wasn't puritanical. He enjoyed the good things of life, swimming in rivers, singing with friends,
33:05and he understood the need for worldly goods.
33:08But he did not think that good men should devote their time and energy to the pursuit of personal gain.
33:15And he didn't believe in a moderate action anywhere, anytime, from anyone.
33:27In Confucius' opinion, kings who commissioned swords like this often abandoned virtue if it got in the way of worldly success.
33:35He saw the way to transform society was to instill the values at work in the family in the rulers of his day.
33:47To understand the power they wielded, you only need to look at the way they were honoured in death.
33:53This ruler, from around the time of Confucius, was buried along with 26 expensive chariots and 70 sacrificial horses.
34:05What kind of connection did Confucius see between the relationships that he'd observed between father and son in the family,
34:11and what's going on here?
34:13Well, he looked at the fact that if you had a good father, he could bring up a good son,
34:18and a good son could then respect the father, and this could work.
34:22So he said, well, look, if it works at this level, let's just take it to the top.
34:26If the ruler views those beneath him as his children,
34:30and treats them with love, but with firmness, with compassion, but with integrity,
34:35that it would then kind of roll down through the system,
34:40and the Confucianists could say, look, you see how the ruler's living like this?
34:44You should live like this.
34:45And literally, it would roll down like the clouds from the mountain,
34:50and bring blessing to everyone.
34:52So for him, might in and of itself wasn't a problem.
34:56But if you had might, then you also had to have a kind of philosophical responsibility to your people.
35:01Yes. Confucius continued the Joe tradition that a ruler has the right to rule,
35:08because heaven has clearly given them the power and the authority,
35:12and that's why the top, top ruler was called the son of heaven.
35:15Yes.
35:16However, that mandate, that right to rule, can be taken away by heaven,
35:21and a sign that heaven has taken it away is natural disasters, massive earthquakes, floods.
35:26Confucius said, if a ruler becomes corrupt, and people are suffering through this cruelty,
35:33then the people have the right to rebel.
35:35And so Confucius, at one level, tells you respect, honour, duty, loyalty.
35:41And he also said, and if that fails, you have the right to overthrow.
35:46Amazing trick.
35:47Confucius tactic was very direct.
36:03He set out to influence those in power by getting a governmental post.
36:08One snag was his personality.
36:11He was often seen as arrogant, too blunt in the way he delivered his advice.
36:16But he also faced a bigger problem.
36:23With enemy armies numbering as many as 300,000, camped on their borders,
36:28and disloyal sons plotting behind their backs,
36:31perhaps it's no surprise that the rulers of the day failed to take Confucius seriously.
36:36Cultivating moral character and virtuous actions in such precarious times was just not a priority.
36:46Conor O'B
36:53With rejection upon rejection, Confucius' faltering political career looked set to fail and his ideas in danger of being lost to history.
37:05ideas in danger of being lost to history but he was tenacious and resourceful in
37:14his early 50s it looks as though he decided to change his strategy he
37:18gathered together a few belongings and hit the road once again to continue his
37:23moral crusade only this time he wasn't alone he was traveling together with a
37:29group of devoted students
37:37his ability to attract motivated young men put his mission to transform self and
37:43society back on track by all accounts Confucius possessed kind of compelling
37:52raw charisma now combine that with intellectual rigor with bold exciting
37:59new ideas and inspiring moral instruction and you've got a potent mix
38:08whilst Confucius had failed alone a band of around 70 students could infiltrate the
38:14corridors of power many levels and in many states they could be a moral vanguard to
38:21advise and instruct rulers on how to rule virtuously and for this vital role
38:27Confucius was scrupulously meritocratic accepting students even from the
38:34poorest of backgrounds in the Analects Confucius said I have never refused
38:39instruction to anyone if of his own accord it comes to me this in itself was a
38:49truly innovative moment marking an historic shift he was urging the Chinese
38:55society should no longer be governed by a hereditary elite people who owed their
39:00positions simply to their bloodlines rather it was those who were most
39:05virtuous most concerned about the well-being of others who should lead his
39:10way was open to people from any background to rise to positions of
39:15authority Confucius shared his groundbreaking commitment to kind of
39:21egalitarianism with Socrates and the Buddha their solutions were in theory
39:27available to everyone but to a greater or lesser extent when it came to women they
39:33all seem to have struggled none of them were exactly model family men the Buddha
39:39left his wife and child Socrates treated his young wife pretty cursorily but at least
39:45those two included women in their thinking and suggested they could be part
39:49of a solution to society's problems however when it comes to Confucius it seems
39:55that he had the next to no time for the female of the species
40:00the ultimate goal for Confucius's students was to become a Jinza now this
40:15wasn't a title he'd made up just as with ritual he took something traditional and
40:21gave it a potent new twist Jinza was an aristocratic word meaning a son of the Lord
40:28denoting qualities that could only belong to a privileged social elite now as part
40:35of his shift towards a moral elite Confucius appropriated it and changed it
40:40to mean the ultimate moral person a superior man a new kind of gentleman in
40:48its most literal sense for Confucius education was crucial drawing on his own
40:59life experience he saw an unswerving commitment to critical learning as the
41:04path to self-cultivation he likened the process to polishing Jade crafting one's
41:11virtuous character to become the perfect moral person you had to know the books of
41:17history to live by the example of the sage kings and to enact correct ritual but
41:23what was essential was to be morally alive to your environment to understand
41:30how to behave intuitively in any situation to think for yourself
41:37confucius's students joined their master moving across war-torn China to try to influence its errant rulers they
41:56were attacked beaten and almost starved but these testing times sharpened their education the challenges
42:06they faced forced them to engage in urgent moral debate they proposed solutions to their problems and then interrogated those provoking the intense intellectual discussions between master and students that you find in the
42:20the Analects they asked questions like should the Jinza accept office in
42:26degenerate times can you serve a corrupt master if you think you can make a difference
42:32Confucius encouraged this open-ended free-thinking discussion yet his students still look to him for definitive answers
42:43ultimately they wanted to know what was the essence of goodness
42:49for Confucius there was one all-embracing virtue the most essential to cultivate and yet the most difficult to attain
42:58something called Ren Ren is a very splendid word idea but what does it actually mean what what quality does it imply
43:11many people try to translate it differently it's being translated as human heartedness
43:18as good or goodness but we prefer now to use the word simply humanity because virtually all Confucian values are linked to this notion
43:31courage with Ren then it's real courage rather than just simply bravery justice with Ren then it's a humility
43:39with Ren then it's humane justice rather than just harsh punishment wisdom with Ren then it's being wise not just being smart
43:46then it's being wise not just being smart
43:49And is this something that you achieve or is looking for Ren a constant quest?
43:56Every person by definition of being a person embodies Ren in other words every human being is capable of sympathetic response to the external world
44:08but at the same time to realize Ren fully which means human flourishing in the most comprehensive sense of the term
44:18that requires learning
44:20and learning of course it's not simply the acquisition of knowledge or internalization of skills
44:26but basically learning to build one's character
44:31and in that sense it's like the highest ideal at the same time it's the minimum requirement to be human
44:38I mean do you think that Confucius felt that he'd achieved Ren?
44:44No and the interesting thing is that many students or followers of Confucius also said no Ren requires continuous process of struggling
44:55even to the end of your life this is still a task incomplete
45:02so no matter what the struggle to be fully human continues
45:12There's something in Confucian philosophy a core message that I find really genuinely inspiring
45:18it's his golden rule taken from the Analects
45:21one student said is there a single word that I should use as a rule to live my life by
45:28and the master replied that would be empathy perhaps
45:34what you do not wish for yourself don't do to others
45:39it's this focus on human relations and being compassionate that I think comes closest to defining what Confucius meant by the term Ren
45:54I do love this about all three of the philosophers whose stories I'm investigating
45:59they made it clear that none of us operate in isolation
46:03it isn't that man is the measure of all things but man's relationship with man
46:21Confucius continued to travel and to teach into his later years
46:24but only a handful of his students went on to hold political office
46:29when Confucius was 73 he fell ill unable to fulfill his mission his final words seem defeated and bitterly disappointed
46:43no intelligent monarch arises there is none who will make me his master it is my time to die
46:52Confucius was buried here in his hometown Chufu
47:06the great transformation he'd worked for his entire life had not been fulfilled
47:12but his devoted students planted trees around his grave and kept his dream alive
47:31for 300 years Confucius's ideas continued as just one of many Chinese schools of thought
47:37competing with the likes of Taoism it was able to affect real change in a chaotic world
47:44but once China was reunited under all powerful emperors
47:50stability changed the political landscape
47:53the first emperor of the Han dynasty was convinced by his principal advisor
47:58that ruling by brutality had served his predecessor badly
48:05allying himself with Confucianism and its ideal of rule by virtue
48:10would lend to his dynasty greater legitimacy
48:13many of the values that Confucius set great store by
48:18the importance of education a shared cultural heritage and ethical government
48:23had seemed an irrelevance during the chaos of his lifetime
48:28but these would prove hugely effective in holding the new empire together
48:38successive emperors enthusiastically took up Confucian ideas
48:41and education was central
48:44the poetry, arts and music of the early Zhou were revived
48:54as a means of cultivating the goodness and virtue within
49:00school children learnt the Confucian canon by heart
49:03meticulously writing it out in their best calligraphy
49:07knowledge of the books of history and rituals of the Zhou dynasty
49:13became a prerequisite to be part of the civil service
49:22Confucian education and Confucian texts
49:25became a powerfully integrative force in Chinese history
49:28and of course it was very useful for rulers to have all that emphasis
49:32on obedience and respect and top-down structure
49:43even those who didn't get the chance to go to school learnt his words
49:46it's actually why we've developed that rather crass form
49:49Confucius says
49:51because for 24 centuries
49:53right across China
49:55people were all quoting Confucius
49:57Confucius
50:00Confucius say
50:01a boy
50:02a girl
50:03a moon
50:05make wedding bells ring out
50:07in month of June
50:10Confucius say
50:12when love come
50:13don't delay
50:15so honey hold me tight
50:18tonight's the night
50:21remember what
50:23Confucius say
50:24you should say
50:32but all that changed in the 20th century
50:36Confucianism came under attack
50:39in 1919
50:41students who wanted China to modernize and become democratic
50:45condemned Confucius for holding them back
50:48but it was Chairman Mao's cultural revolution of the 1960s
50:53that tried to annihilate all vestiges of his legacy
50:59his Red Guard destroyed statues, temples and texts
51:05they even came here
51:07to his burial place
51:12in a telegram to Chairman Mao they wrote
51:14we have dragged out the statue of Confucius
51:18we have torn down the plaque extolling the teacher of 10,000 generations
51:23we have leveled Confucius' grave
51:26we have destroyed
51:28it is really chilling coming here
51:38to see how a raging rigid form of an ideology
51:42try to obliterate the memory of a man of ideas
51:45but thousands of years of ubiquitous Confucian education
52:04particularly the exam system
52:06had embedded his principles deep within Chinese culture
52:09by the start of the 21st century
52:12the government began once again to embrace his ideals
52:21today Confucianism is undergoing a renaissance
52:25and education remains at the forefront
52:27this is a Confucian school in Chufu
52:36120 pupils from the ages of 6 to 18
52:40study the Confucian texts and classical arts here
52:43it's just one of around 3,000 schools in China
52:48that teaches Confucian values and philosophy
52:50so what is your favourite Confucius quote?
53:06why do you like Confucius?
53:16why did you decide to send your daughter to a Confucian school?
53:18why did you decide to do a Confucian school?
53:20why need you to do a really good job?
53:37It is just fascinating
53:39seeing these kids being brought up
53:41with an ancient philosophy
53:42at the heart of everything that they think, say and do
53:44and actually they seem to be having a great time
53:46to be having a great time it's also even more incredible though if you think that
53:51just a few decades ago Confucius was considered an enemy of the state and
53:56none of this would have been allowed to happen or if it did it would have to
53:59have happened in secret behind closed doors and the risk of really severe
54:04punishment in modern China greater individualism is seen to have undermined
54:15a collective sense of right and wrong Confucius's resurgence can be explained
54:21by the desire for a clearer sense of moral purpose but I wonder if Confucius's
54:27appeal is very simple he tells us that whatever our character whatever situation
54:33we're born into being good living a good life is a possibility and that the route
54:41to goodness is wisdom now that means that as a species in our finest form we are
54:50all philosophers in the true sense of the word lovers of wisdom
54:58so
55:10across this series I've examined the ideas of three inspiring minds of the ancient
55:17world Socrates brought philosophy down from the heavens and into people's homes
55:22so that through the training of our reason, we can achieve happiness for ourselves.
55:29What does change the question from, is there God, to questions like how to agree
55:36on good action without necessarily agreeing on what happens after death.
55:44Confucius said, you know, ritual is a way to bring out the inside good qualities,
55:51like benevolence, like this reverence, and if more people possess good qualities
55:57and become real human, then the social life, family life or community life would become peaceful.
56:06But ultimately, what do they have to teach us in the here and now?
56:13Although these were ideas that were developed 25 centuries ago,
56:18do you think they have as much relevance to our world as they did to ancient China,
56:25ancient Greece, ancient India?
56:28If I want to exaggerate, probably even more so.
56:32They were confronted with a world in disintegration, little rationality, little compassion.
56:38And we are in a world that's much more serious.
56:44Because it's not simply that the human world is in trouble, the planet is in trouble.
56:52And we have in our power the destruction of all civilizations, including the planet itself.
57:00So, a change has to be made, not just a change of a political system or economic system,
57:07these are absolutely necessary, but a change of a mindset and the retrieval of the wisdom of
57:15Socrates, the Buddha and Confucius. It's not a question of relevance, it's a question of human survival.
57:20Socrates, the Buddha and Confucius, the Buddha and Confucius
57:25These extraordinary thinkers aren't remote historical figures.
57:30They are pioneers of human consciousness, whose ideas have informed and enriched the lives of
57:36countless people to this day.
57:37Their radical responses to the social upheaval of their age have in many ways determined who we are now.
57:47Their message was inspiring and challenging, that the world isn't unknowable, unchangeable.
57:56By engaging with it fully, we can lead better and more meaningful lives.
58:01If the mind of Confucius has made you think, then explore further with The Open University,
58:21to discover how great minds have influenced our world today.
58:26Go to the address on the screen and follow the links to The Open University.
58:31Coming up next this evening here on BBC4, we're off to Chengdu, where a massive breeding project
58:42aims to save the panda from extinction. Stay with us for a Natural World special.
59:01So, remember, when I get there, my world's dead from extinction.
59:04From theомеos, the Bible's dead from smoke, we'll get to see the moon's dead.
59:06We're off to the moon's dead.
59:08For the third time here on ABC4, we're on the spotlight.
59:10We're on the spotlight.
59:12We're on the spotlight.
59:14We're on the spotlight.
59:16We're on the spotlight.
59:18We're on the spotlight.
59:20We're on the spotlight.
59:22We're on the spotlight.
59:24So, now, first, we have to think about it.
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