| 1 | #title The Wisdom of the Ancients |
| 2 | |
| 3 | * Mencius |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ** III.B.1 |
| 6 | |
| 7 | <quote> |
| 8 | Ch'en Tai said, "When you refused even to see them, the feudal lords |
| 9 | appeared insignificant to you. Now that you have seen them, they are |
| 10 | either kings, or, at least, leaders of the feudal lords. Moreover, |
| 11 | it is said in the *Records*, 'Bend the foot in order to straighten |
| 12 | the yard.' That seems worth doing." |
| 13 | |
| 14 | "Once," said Mencius, "Duke Ching of Ch'i went hunting and summoned |
| 15 | his gamekeeper with a pennon. The gamekeeper did not come, and the |
| 16 | Duke was going to have him put to death. 'A man whose mind is set on |
| 17 | high ideals never forgets that he may end in a ditch; a man of valor |
| 18 | never forgets that he may forfeit his head.' What did Conficius find |
| 19 | praiseworthy in the gamekeeper? His refusal to answer to a form of |
| 20 | summons to which he was not entitled. What can one do about those |
| 21 | who go without even being summoned? Moreover, the saying, 'Bend the |
| 22 | foot in order to straighten the yard' refers to profit. If it is for |
| 23 | profit, I suppose one might just as well bend the yard to straighten |
| 24 | the foot. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | "Once, Viscount Chien of Chao sent Wang Liang to drive the chariot |
| 27 | for his favorite, Hsi. In the whole day they failed to catch one |
| 28 | single bird. Hsi reported to his master, 'He is the worst charioteer |
| 29 | in the world.' Someone told Wang Liang of this. Liang asked, 'May I |
| 30 | have another chance?' It was with difficulty that Hsi was persuaded, |
| 31 | but in one morning they caught ten birds. Hsi reported to his |
| 32 | master, 'He is the best charioteer in the world.' 'I shall make him |
| 33 | drive for you,' said Viscount Chien. He asked Wang Liang, but |
| 34 | Wang Liang refused. 'I drove for him according to the proper rules,' |
| 35 | said he, 'and we did not catch a single bird all day. Then I used |
| 36 | underhand methods, and we caught ten birds in one morning. The *Book |
| 37 | of Odes* says, |
| 38 | |
| 39 | <verse> |
| 40 | He never failed to drive correctly, |
| 41 | And his arrows went straight for the target |
| 42 | </verse> |
| 43 | |
| 44 | I am not used to driving for small men. May I be excused?' |
| 45 | |
| 46 | "Even a charioteer is ashamed to be in league with an archer. When |
| 47 | doing so means catching enough birds to pile up like a mountain, he |
| 48 | would still rather not do it. What can one do about those who bend |
| 49 | the Way in order to please others? You are futher mistaken. There |
| 50 | has never been a man who could straighten others by bending |
| 51 | himself." |
| 52 | </quote> |
| 53 | |
| 54 | ** VI.A.10 |
| 55 | |
| 56 | <quote> |
| 57 | Mencius said, "Fish is what I want; bear's palm is also what I |
| 58 | want. If I cannot have both, I would rather take bear's palm than |
| 59 | fish. Life is what I want; dutifulness is also what I want. If I |
| 60 | cannot have both, I would rather take dutifulness than life. On the |
| 61 | one hand, though life is what I want, there is something I want more |
| 62 | than life. That is why I do not cling to life at all costs. On the |
| 63 | other hand, though death is what I loathe, there is something I |
| 64 | loathe more than death. That is why there are troubles I do not |
| 65 | avoid. If there is nothing a man wants more than life, then why |
| 66 | should he have scruples about any means, so long as it will serve to |
| 67 | keep him alive? if there is nothing a man loathes more than death, |
| 68 | then why should have have scruples about any means, so long as it |
| 69 | helps him to avoid trouble? Yet there are ways of remaining alive |
| 70 | and ways of avoiding death to which a man will not resort. In other |
| 71 | words, there are things a man wants more than life and there are |
| 72 | also things he loathes more than death. This is an attitude not |
| 73 | confined to the moral man but common to all men. The moral man simply |
| 74 | never loses it. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | "Here is a basketful of rice and a bowful of soup. Getting them will |
| 77 | mean life; not getting them will mean death. When these are given |
| 78 | with abuse, even a wayfarer would not accept them; when these are |
| 79 | given after being trampled upon, even a beggar would not accept |
| 80 | them. Yet when it comes to ten thousand bushels of grain one is |
| 81 | supposed to accept without asking if it is in accordance with the |
| 82 | rites or if it is right to do so. What benefit are then thousand |
| 83 | bushels of grain to me? [Do I accept them] for the sake of beautiful |
| 84 | houses, the enjoyment of wives and concubines, or for the sake of |
| 85 | the gratitude my needy acquaintances will show? What I would not |
| 86 | accept in the first instance when it was a matter of life and death |
| 87 | I now accept for the sake of beautiful houses; what I would not |
| 88 | accept when it was a matter of life and death I now accept for the |
| 89 | enjoyment of wives and concubines; what I would not accept when it |
| 90 | was a matter of life and death I now accept for the sake of the |
| 91 | gratitude my needy acquaintances will show me. Is there no way of |
| 92 | putting a stop to this? This way of thinking is known as losing |
| 93 | one's original heart." |
| 94 | </quote> |
| 95 | |
| 96 | * Qohelet |
| 97 | |
| 98 | ** One |
| 99 | |
| 100 | <verse> |
| 101 | 1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. |
| 102 | 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. |
| 103 | 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? |
| 104 | 4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth |
| 105 | abideth for ever. |
| 106 | 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place |
| 107 | where he arose. |
| 108 | 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it |
| 109 | whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his |
| 110 | circuits. |
| 111 | 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place |
| 112 | from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. |
| 113 | 8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not |
| 114 | satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. |
| 115 | 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done |
| 116 | is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. |
| 117 | 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been |
| 118 | already of old time, which was before us. |
| 119 | 11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any |
| 120 | remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. |
| 121 | 12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. |
| 122 | 13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things |
| 123 | that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man |
| 124 | to be exercised therewith. |
| 125 | 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is |
| 126 | vanity and vexation of spirit. |
| 127 | 15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting |
| 128 | cannot be numbered. |
| 129 | 16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and |
| 130 | have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: |
| 131 | yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. |
| 132 | 17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I |
| 133 | perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. |
| 134 | 18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge |
| 135 | increaseth sorrow. |
| 136 | </verse> |
| 137 | |
| 138 | * Søren Kierkegaard |
| 139 | |
| 140 | ** Either/Or I |
| 141 | |
| 142 | <quote> |
| 143 | A feature in which our age certainly excels that age in Greece is that |
| 144 | our age is more depressed and therefore deeper in despair. Thus, our |
| 145 | age is sufficiently depressed to know that there is something called |
| 146 | responsibility and that this means something. Therefore, although |
| 147 | everyone wants to rule, no one wants to have responsibility. It is |
| 148 | still fresh in our memory that a French statesman, when offered a |
| 149 | portfolio the second time, declared that he would accept it but on the |
| 150 | condition that the secretary of state be made responsible. It is well |
| 151 | known that the king in France is not responsible, but the prime |
| 152 | minister is; the prime minister does not wish to be responsible but |
| 153 | wants to be prime minister provided that the secretary of state will |
| 154 | be responsible; ultimately it ends, of course, with the watchmen or |
| 155 | street commissioners becoming responsible. Would not this inverted |
| 156 | story of responsibility be an appropriate subject for Aristophanes! On |
| 157 | the other hand, why are the government and the governors so afraid of |
| 158 | assuming responsibility, unless it is because they fear an opposition |
| 159 | party that in turn continually pushes away responsibility on a similar |
| 160 | scale. When one imagines these two powers face to face with each other |
| 161 | but unable to catch hold of each other because the one is always |
| 162 | disappearing and is replaced by the other--such a situation would |
| 163 | certainly not be without comic power. |
| 164 | </quote> |
| 165 | |
| 166 | * Nietzsche |
| 167 | |
| 168 | ** Beyond Good and Evil |
| 169 | |
| 170 | <quote> |
| 171 | **30.** Our highest insights must---and should---sound |
| 172 | like follies and sometimes like crimes when they are heard without |
| 173 | permission by those who are not predisposed and predestined for |
| 174 | them. The difference between the exoteric and the esoteric, formerly |
| 175 | known to philosophers---among the Indians as among the Greek, |
| 176 | Persians, and Muslims, in short, wherever one believed in an order of |
| 177 | rank and *not* in equality and equal rights---does not so much |
| 178 | consists in this, that the exoteric approach comes from the outside |
| 179 | and sees, estimates, measures, and judges from the outside, not the |
| 180 | inside; what is much more essential is that the exoteric approach sees |
| 181 | things from below, the esoteric looks *down from above*. There |
| 182 | are heights of the soul from which even tragedy ceases to look tragic; |
| 183 | and rolling together all the woe of the world---who could dare to |
| 184 | decide whether its sight would *necessarily* seduce us and |
| 185 | compel us to feel pity and thus double this woe? |
| 186 | |
| 187 | What serves the higher type of men as nourishment or delectation must |
| 188 | almost be poison for a very different and inferior type. The virtues |
| 189 | of the common man might perhaps signify vices and weaknesses in a |
| 190 | philosopher. It could be possible that a man of a high type, when |
| 191 | degenerating and perishing, might only at that point acquire qualities |
| 192 | that would require those in the lower sphere into which he had sunk to |
| 193 | begin to venerate him like a saint. There are books that have opposite |
| 194 | values for soul and health, depending on whether the lower soul, the |
| 195 | lower vitality, or the higher and more vigorous ones turn to them: in |
| 196 | the former case, these books are dangerous and lead to crumbling and |
| 197 | disintegration; in the latter, heralds' cries that call the bravest to |
| 198 | *their* courage. Books for all the world are always |
| 199 | foul-smelling books: the smell of small people clings to them. Where |
| 200 | the people eat and drink, even where they venerate, it usually |
| 201 | stinks. One should not go to church if one wants to breathe |
| 202 | *pure* air. |
| 203 | </quote> |