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If one wishes to understand Chinese culture, values, and the way of thinking that has shaped billions of people for over 2,000 years, The Analects (Lunyu in Chinese) is an indispensable book. Compiled by the disciples of Confucius (Kongzi, 551–479 BCE) and their followers, this collection of dialogues, sayings, and anecdotes is not just…
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In Chapter 43 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as Zhuge Liang arrives in Chaisang to persuade Sun Quan to form an alliance against Cao Cao, he is confronted not by soldiers, but by scholars.
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8.21 The Master said,”In Yu I can find no semblance of a flaw. Abstemious in his own food and drink, he displayed the utmost devotion in his offerings to spirits and divinities. Content with the plainest clothes for common wear, he saw to it that his sacrificial apron and ceremonial headdress were of the…
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8.20Shun had five ministers and all that is under Heaven was well ruled.
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8.19The Master said, “Greatest, as lord and ruler, was Yao. Sublime, indeed, was he. ‘There is no greatness like the greatness of Heaven,’ yet Yao could copy it. So boundless was it that the people could find no name for it; yet sublime were his achievements, dazzling the insignia of his culture!”
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8.18The Master said, “Sublime were Shun and Yu! All that is under Heaven was theirs, yet they remained aloof from it.”
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8.17The Master said, “Learn as if you were following someone whom you could not catch up, as though it were someone you were frightened of losing.”
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8.16The Master said, “Impetuous, but tricky! Ingenuous, but dishonest! Simple-minded, but capable of breaking promises! To such men I can give no recognition.”