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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, |
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38 | |
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39 | <verse> |
40 | He never failed to drive correctly, |
41 | And his arrows went straight for the target |
42 | </verse> |
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43 | |
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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> |
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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 | |
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170 | <quote> |
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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. |
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203 | </quote> |