From: jamesou@liverbug.hsc.usc.edu (James Ou)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Re: big lie
Date: 13 Dec 1992 16:30:30 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: soc
NNTP-Posting-Host: liverbug.hsc.usc.edu


In <1992Dec11.4298.40125@dosgate>, "micky wong" <micky.wong@canrem.com>
writes:

>Confucius had said many similar views with small variations at different
>occasions.

Yes, I also noticed that. There were a number of statements in
the Analects of Confucius which also appeared in the Family
Sayings of Confucius (Kong3 zi3 jia1 yu3). The statements in
these two books often varied slightly.

>3JO> Well, this is what Confucius quoted from Guan3 Zhong4:
>
>I do not know "Guan3 Zhong4",...

I think you actually know who GZ (or Guan3 Yi2 Wu2) was. Too bad
that I have to write the Chinese characters in Pinyin. GZ helped
Qi2 Huan2 Gong1 to become the leader of the warring states during
the Spring-Autumn period of the Chinese history. GZ told the Duke
of Qi2 state to respect the king and to expel the barbarians
(Zun1 Wang2 Rang3 Yi2). He also had another famous saying, "Sheng1 Wo3
Zhe3 Fu4 Mu3, Zhi1 Wo3 Zhe3 Bao1 Shu2. [My parents gave birth to me, but
the person who knows me was Baoshu.]" 

>Tang2 Tai4 Zong1 (Emperor TaiZong of Tang dynasty) was a very wise
>Chinese. But for the majority of the Chinese people, to gamble their
>welfare on the wisdom of one single smart ruler, has proofed a very
>costly and unprofitable business.

I agree. In the Chinese history, a benevolent emperor often led
to a prosperous China and a ruthless emperor often turned China
into a mess. The best examples were Sui2 Wen2 Di4 and Sui2 Yang2
Di4. The father was benevolent and created a prosperous China.
The son, on the other hand, was ruthless and turned China into a
mess. Unfortunately, this kind of history is still going on.
Today, China's future again is dependent on one person. When Mao
decided to launch CR, Chinese people sufferred, and when Deng
decided to learn from the capitalist West, Chinese economy
boomed. Just look at the Hong Kong stock market, any news about 
DXP's health can cause the stock price to plumet or to soar.

>(The story of Li3 Shi4 Ming2 may exemplify the paradoxical nature of
>human endeavour: He had to kill his own brothers and forced his own
>father into early retirement, in order to gain power, yet he proofed to
>be the most sensible ruler of China.)

That is right. LSM killed his brothers Jian4 Cheng2 and Yuan2
Ji2. He did not want to do that, though. It was because he was
"Jian4 Zai4 Xuan2 Shang4, Bu4 De2 Bu4 Fa1" (the arrow in on the
string of the bow, it had to shoot). LSM was passive in this
incident (Xuan2 Wu3 Men2 Zhi1 Bian4). His people such as Yu4 Chi2
Gong1 and Chang2 Sun1 Wu2 Ji4 told him that if he did not act
fast, he as well as people loyal to him would be killed by his
brothers. IMO, LSM was the best emperor China ever had. He,
however, created a bad example for his successors. His sons
fought with each other to succeed the throne. Finally, LSM had to
give the throne to his younger son Li3 Zhi4, a kind person who
was not involved in the political fight, to protect the lives of
the rival sons of his. Later on, his grandson Rui4 Zong1 with the
help of Li3 Long2 Ji1 again initiated a coup to take the emperor
position. LSM's father, however, retired voluntarily.


****Confucius said, "Wei2 Guan3 Zhong4, Wu2 Qi2 Pi1 Fa3 Zuo3 Ren4 Yi2."
(Without GZ, we would have been wearing the clothings of foreigners
[i.e., being conquered by foreigners].)

Newsgroups: soc.culture.china,soc.culture.hongkong,talk.politics.china