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Since the dawn of civilisation, the forces of nature
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and the whims of gods held sway over humanity.
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But 2,500 years ago,
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humankind experienced a profound transformation.
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Suddenly, there were new possibilities.
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This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief.
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This is an ethic which does not rely on the gods.
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The world is now explained in terms of natural forces.
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We are now responsible for our own destiny.
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Upheavals across the globe sparked an ambitious
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vision of what humans could achieve,
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spearheaded by three trailblazers.
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Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha -
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great thinkers from the ancient world
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whose ideas still shape our own lives.
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Is wealth a good thing?
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How do you create a just society?
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How do I live a good life?
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By daring to think the unthinkable,
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they laid the foundations of our modern world.
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I've always been intrigued by the fact that these men,
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who lived many thousands of miles apart,
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seemed almost spontaneously, within 100 years of one another,
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to come up with such radical ways of thinking.
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So, what was going on?
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I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas
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to understand what set them in motion.
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In this programme, I'm on the trail of that quintessential
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Eastern sage - Confucius.
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He had a mission. But many people at that time did not agree with him.
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His vision was modelled on the power of the past and the family.
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He believed that education could transform both individuals
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and society.
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He is talking about your state of mind. Your feelings.
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But in the 20th century, Confucius was declared an enemy of communism.
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So now, he should be out of favour.
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But that hardly seems to be the case.
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This is the longest continuous civilisation in the world,
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and Confucius has a huge role in that.
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It's so amazing to be so close to them. My heart is beating!
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In 551 BC, an elderly ex-soldier from the ancient state of Lu
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faced a grave predicament.
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His family line was in danger of ending.
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He needed a son to continue his name,
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someone who would be able to perform the vital rituals to honour him
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and his ancestors.
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The old man took a young wife.
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We are told that she went to a sacred mountain
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and prayed hard for a boy.
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The son she bore would be known as Master Kong.
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In Chinese, Kong Fuzi.
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In the West, we call him Confucius.
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Confucius was born into one of the most advanced
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civilisations in the world.
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The ancient Chinese were innovators in art,
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metal work, agriculture and weaponry.
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And from around 1000 BC,
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they developed a sophisticated political system.
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A network of vassal lords who bore allegiance to one king.
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But by the time Confucius was going up,
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stability had turned to chaos.
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This was an age when all of ancient China
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was trapped in a ruthless cycle of war.
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Tribal invasions from the west, along with rebellion amongst
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the lords, splintered the empire into independent states.
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All vying for power.
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Spurred on by a kind of arms race, now that cast iron meant that
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weapons could be mass-produced, families attacked families.
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This was total war.
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This collapse in society would become
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the catalyst for Confucius' ground-breaking philosophy.
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The oldest record of Confucius' life and ideas, the Analects,
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were compiled about a century after his death.
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These fragments of his conversations,
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along with other later histories, give us clues to his life story.
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We are told that Confucius was just three when his father died.
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Old aristocracy, he had fallen on hard times -
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one of the victims of the turmoil of the age -
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leaving Confucius' mother to raise her son on her own
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in a kind of genteel poverty.
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Interestingly, it seems that education was Confucius' lifeline.
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Somehow, probably through a mix of private teachers
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and home-schooling and, you suspect, the sheer grit and determination
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of his mother, Confucius was taught history, poetry and ritual.
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While other children played with toys, he's said to have acted
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out sacred rituals by laying out cups and bowls.
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Now, these weren't just empty gestures,
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a bit of spiritual theatre.
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The kinds of rituals that Confucius learned played a crucial role
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in the ancient Chinese world view.
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A world view in which order and harmony,
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both on Earth and in the cosmos,
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were considered essential goals
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if life on Earth was to continue.
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The ancient rites that young Confucius knew were performed here,
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at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, right up until the 20th century.
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The Chinese had a particular religious outlook which
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meant that these rituals weren't directed towards a deity.
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There is no creative god.
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There's nothing like the idea
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of a supreme power that dreams
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everything into being.
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What it posits instead is this notion that there are
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two cosmic forces. They're not even really divine,
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they're just natural forces, a bit like gravity in a sense.
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And on the temple here, you have perhaps the most common,
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the most powerful symbols of these two great forces.
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And that is the dragon, the heavenly force.
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And the phoenix is the female, the cold, the earthly force.
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And they are locked in perpetual struggle.
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They try to overcome each other.
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And it's this incredible dance of power
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out of which all life pours.
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So what's humanity's role in all of this?
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We're fundamental to this. You've got these two great cosmic forces
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and our role is to keep the balance, and we do this through ritual.
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And that's what this kind of temple complex was built for.
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This is where the ruler would come to make offerings to
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rebalance these two forces.
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And it wasn't just for the rulers, it took place in every single temple,
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every local shrine, right down to the household.
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Sounds like a potent and a pervasive world view
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that Confucius is being brought up with.
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Absolutely. It's the only world view he knows.
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As he reached adulthood, it looks as though Confucius grew to
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appreciate the gaping disparity between the ancient ideal of order
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and the reality of life subject to the chaos that raged all around him.
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His search for a solution to that intractable problem
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at the very heart of Chinese society
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would prove to be his life's work.
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Fortunately, conditions across the ancient world were nourishing
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new ways of thinking.
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Improvements in agriculture, increased trade,
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and growing urbanisation meant that some in society were less
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tied to a life of subsistence, creating the opportunity for
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men like Socrates, the Buddha and Confucius to develop their ideas.
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The scale of change - economic and technological -
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is reflected in archaeological remains,
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like this monumental grain store.
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Advances in technology from the Iron Age onwards led to an increase
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in agricultural yields that were stored in massive pits like this.
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Suddenly, for ordinary people, because they had enough food,
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life just wasn't a grinding cycle of a kind of hand-to-mouth existence.
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Obviously, stores like this provided grain,
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but they also gave another great gift - time to think.
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When Confucius was about 20, we're told
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he landed a bureaucratic job managing grain stores like this.
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But his mind was occupied by the turmoil of the day.
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Looking around him,
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it seemed obvious to Confucius that humanity needed help.
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And how he responded is considered a first in Chinese history.
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He began to engage in systematic philosophical enquiry.
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One thing I like about Confucius is the sense that you get
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that he had a kind of natural curiosity,
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that he felt compelled to explore, and to try to understand the world.
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And in his early 20s, he decided to leave his home state of Lu,
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and get on the road.
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Travelling west, he would have eventually met the great
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Yellow River.
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I think we have to imagine him
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at this point in his life as a kind of ethnographer,
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going from one place to another with open eyes
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and an open mind, gathering together experiences and encounters.
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The Analects describe Confucius meeting people who had
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renounced civilised society and lived amongst nature.
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These recluses were the forerunners of Daoism,
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that other great belief system of ancient China.
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They believed in something known as the Way.
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Could you explain to me what exactly the Way is?
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Is it possible for humans to influence or control the Way?
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Xiexie. Xiexie.
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The Daoists believed that developed society diverted us from the Way.
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Society was artificial, something people imposed on the natural
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spontaneous way of the universe.
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Only by reconnecting with the forces of nature could
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we achieve harmony once again.
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Confucius reacted to Daoist belief with a kind of frustrated
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indignation.
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"We can't go and live with the birds and the beasts.
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"Am I not a man among men?
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"If the Way prevailed in the world, there would be no need for me
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"to change it."
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Confucius' search for solutions to the problems of his day
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took on a more practical, political dimension.
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For him, the Way wasn't an intangible cosmic force.
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Instead, he saw it as the harmony that could be brought about
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by a perfectly ordered society,
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something attainable by human action.
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It was a claim the Daoists thought the height of arrogance.
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This critical dispute is embodied in one legendary encounter.
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Confucius is said to have come here, the city of Luoyang.
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As he was studying in the state archives,
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he met an older man and they struck up a philosophical discussion.
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As Confucius got up to leave, the old man chastised him.
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"Put away your proud air and many desires,
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"your insinuating habit and wild will.
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"These are of no advantage to you."
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The enigmatic old man was none other than Laozi,
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credited as the founder of Daoism.
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Whether it's true or not, this pairing with such a great figure
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reveals the iconic status Confucius would later reach.
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And it tells us something else.
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That setting in the archive gives us a clue to Confucius' methods.
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For him, solutions to contemporary problems lay in a close study
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of what had gone before.
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The past was a kind of reservoir of truth.
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Ever since he was a boy, he had been schooled in ancient texts.
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Now, as a man, they became the inspiration for,
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and the very foundation of his philosophy.
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Recent discoveries have shed new light on these classic texts
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of Chinese history -
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800 bamboo slips which contain the earliest
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evidence of Confucius's words.
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They were found in 1993 in the tomb of an old noble man.
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Amazing. And they date back to when?
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Oh, these were dated to the 4th century BCE,
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roughly 100 years after Confucius.
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It says something like,
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"Set your mind on the way and be virtuous.
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"Do everything in accordance with humanity."
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Not only the earliest words of Confucius but beautiful words too.
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Wow.
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And they were so amazing because they provide us new
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information on early classics that were very important
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to Confucius himself.
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And, for example, this particular slip
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mention about the classics he would have read.
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The Book Of Odes - ritual and music.
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But The Book Of History is very important, because it recorded
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figures such as the Duke of Zhou, and early kings of the Western Zhou
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that was about 500 years before Confucius' time.
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And these men were able to lead a society of harmony.
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Confucius found in the words of The Book Of History
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what he was looking for -
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an ideal model where social and political harmony had prevailed,
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engineered by the almost super-humanely sage rulers
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of the early Zhou dynasty,
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in particular, the Duke of Zhou.
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When his brother, King Wu, died,
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the Duke could have seized the throne.
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But it's reported that instead he acted loyally,
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ruling as a regent for his nephew, the king's son.
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And then, when the boy grew up, fairly and faithfully,
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he handed over the reins of power.
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Whether these accounts were entirely true is a moot point,
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but Confucius saw huge potential in them.
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This golden age was robust evidence that social order was possible.
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By following the practices and the examples of the early Zhou,
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by reviving the past,
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there could be solutions to the problems of the present.
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It is the great thing about golden ages, they're very comforting.
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We believe that if humanity was capable of wonderful things
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in the past, we can achieve them once again.
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Confucius believed that early Zhou society was the ideal
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manifestation of his concept of the Way.
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To recreate that harmony,
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society needed to return to their high standards.
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Especially in terms of ritual.
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Confucius was convinced that the ancient rites had been corrupted.
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In order to restore the golden age,
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he would have to reinstate proper ritual.
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Here, in Confucius' hometown of Qufu,
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is a temple dedicated to the master.
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It's the ultimate place of pilgrimage for many of his devotees.
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Mr Kong traces his ancestry back to Confucius
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and often leads rituals that his illustrious relative
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set such store by.
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HE CALLS OUT
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But ritual here has always meant more than just ceremony.
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It's an all-encompassing ethos that shapes every
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aspect of people's behaviour,
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including what we might call etiquette and customs.
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It seems that Confucius threw himself into understanding
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and perfecting the rites of the early Zhou.
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Confucius was nothing if not a stickler for detail.
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We hear he wouldn't even sit on a mat unless it was dead straight.
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But there seems to have been a kind of beauty in his precision.
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Just listen to these wonderful words describing him.
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"His expression was serious, his step brisk.
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"When with his clasped hands he bowed to his colleagues on left
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"and right, his robes moved evenly in front and back.
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"His hurrying advance was a glide."
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Confucius set out to transmit the importance of proper ritual,
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promoting his ideas right across the land.
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One account describes his rather hostile reception
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from a government advisor from the state of Qi.
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"Confucius lays such stress on appearance and costume,
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"elaborate etiquette and codes of behaviour that it would take
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"generations to learn his rule. One lifetime wouldn't be enough."
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To this day, Confucius is often criticised for his pedantic
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attachment to intricate forms of antiquated ritual.
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But what his critics didn't understand is that he had
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discovered something radically new within these ancient rites,
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something which marked a critical shift in his thinking.
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When Confucius' was in his mid-20s, his mother died.
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For three years, he dutifully carried out ancestral rites
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in her honour.
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But he would breathe new life and new meaning into these traditions.
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- WHISPERS:
- Ah! Oh, yes.
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Wow, how beautiful.
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So these are things that would actually have been
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used in ancestor worship?
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Exactly. Ancient Chinese believed that the ghost
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and spirits continue to exist after the ancestors die.
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So it's important to offer them food and wine in these kind of vessels.
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In particular, those made of very expensive bronze.
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And everyone would be really engaging in the ritual to continue
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a kind of relationship they had before.
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Do we know what Confucius thought about all of this?
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Well, Confucius still believed that ancestors were still
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very important part,
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but he started to shift emphasis towards the living,
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by saying that it meant that it's important
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for us to develop this kind of reverence
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and the proper relationship while they are still alive.
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As he said in the Analects very clearly, that if you don't know
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how to serve the living, how would you know how to serve the dead?
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That's really interesting. He's saying actually focus first
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on the here and now and on those who are still around you in
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the day-to-day before you start to think about those who are long dead.
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You are so right.
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It's no longer just about objects like this.
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It's about your state of mind,
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your feelings,
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your love and sincerity
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from inside that you would have towards these people around you.
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Confucius realised that ritual brought out positive emotions in us.
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But his really big revelation was that this could permanently
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change who we are.
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Habitually performing the rituals of history,
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with the right attitude and sincerity,
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could transform our mind-set.
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Virtuous feelings could make virtuous beings.
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Ritual for him was not just the way you do things,
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exactly follow the traditional and this and the rules,
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but even more importantly, you've got to have something inside.
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You've got to have a reverence, respect,
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because this was the way to cultivate
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your inside of goodness, the inside of this kind of
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and the qualities.
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And the whole person would be transformed on the inside.
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But, I mean, that sounds really radical. So he's saying
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you need to do things properly, but they're not just a mechanical
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action. It affects who you are inside, sort of psychologically?
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Yes, yeah, I think this exactly.
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Not only just bring order to the social and life,
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but also this to create a new psychological under this
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meaning there and tried to cultivate this good human qualities.
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Yeah. I mean, it's interesting cos he doesn't sell himself
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as an innovator, but he was.
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Yes, he was,
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I think. Confucius said, you know, he was the only transmitter
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that transmitted the ancient culture to today, to the future.
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But actually, what he did was innovation.
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These new things that are really coming from his reinterpretation
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of something that already exists, such as the ritual.
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Nourishing virtue lay at the core of Confucius' vision.
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And he saw transformative opportunities in everyday rituals -
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how we speak, how we dress and how we eat.
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But one that was particularly close to his heart was music.
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He's said to have played the zither and the sounding chimes.
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This was a time and place where music was all around,
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played on totally wonderful things like this monumental
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set of bells that date to just after Confucius' death.
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Music was played to accompany ritual in temples and homes,
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so if you listen to these, then you'll be hearing the sounds
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that would have surrounded Confucius during his lifetime.
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BELL DINGS
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Confucius was convinced that music had the power to harmonise,
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to transform and perfect an individual.
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Basically,
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this is art as therapy 2,500 years before we invent the phrase.
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This practical application of philosophical ideas
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in day-to-day life is something that really marks out Confucius,
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as well as those other game-changing philosophers -
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the Buddha and Socrates.
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As a philosopher, you don't just indulge in abstract musings,
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you develop a robust delivery mechanism for your theories.
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Ideas have to have traction, and they have to have tangible impact.
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Confucius was a practical man.
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He had been spurred into action by the bellicose times
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into which he was born.
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His philosophy would only truly be a success
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if he it could affect change on a grand scale.
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Confucius came to think this -
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that shaping and cultivating moral individuals
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was the key to creating a stable social and political order.
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By figuring out what made a good person,
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you could make a good society.
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00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:33,480
And so his mission was this -
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to teach people how to be virtuous in a world of political disorder
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and moral decay.
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Confucius had given himself a mountain to climb.
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How to instil virtue in society, when society's moral contract
395
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was so broken was Confucius' big challenge.
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He was to find inspiration from a familiar and enduring institution.
397
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The family.
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00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,560
Hello! Thank you.
399
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:30,080
Wow, that was quite some welcome! Thank you. Xiexie.
400
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:35,760
'Confucius noted how families are organised along hierarchical lines,'
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00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:38,440
with fixed responsibilities.
402
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:41,920
From birth, we learn our place within key relationships.
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Husband, wife.
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Father, son.
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Older brother, younger brother.
406
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Recognising... Oh, thanks.
407
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:57,880
Ah, yeah. Thank you very much.
408
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:01,760
Recognising your... Oh, xiexie.
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00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,040
Recognising your place within these relationships
410
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:10,160
and fulfilling your mutual responsibilities within that
411
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:14,400
hierarchy taught essential moral values.
412
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From the family, we developed a sense of loyalty, of honesty,
413
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,920
of duty, of respect, of filial responsibility.
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Basically, to love those around us.
415
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,520
Confucius saw that the concept of family was a potent model
416
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,800
and a potential solution for society's ills.
417
00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:41,200
The family showed how authority could be both exercised
418
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and submitted to, fairly and productively.
419
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Not through intimidation, but through mutual assent.
420
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The moral values learnt in the family - affection and care
421
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directed downwards, and loyalty and obedience directed above -
422
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had the potential to transform everyone.
423
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,680
But Confucius saw that arguably their greatest value
424
00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:13,880
lay in relation to the glaring problem at the heart of society -
425
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,320
the waywardness of its rulers.
426
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:33,720
This magnificent sword embodies what, for Confucius,
427
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:37,040
was the fundamental problem with Chinese leadership.
428
00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:41,320
This was made when Confucius was alive,
429
00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:43,360
and it tells us all about itself.
430
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,720
There's an inscription here that reads,
431
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:52,080
"Belonging to King Goujian of Yue. Made for his personal use."
432
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:55,920
Now, this is obviously a fabulously deluxe object.
433
00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,200
And Confucius wouldn't have had a problem with that per se.
434
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:01,080
He wasn't puritanical.
435
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:04,440
He enjoyed the good things of life - swimming in rivers,
436
00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:06,040
singing with friends -
437
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:09,320
and he understood the need for worldly goods.
438
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But he did not think that good men should devote their time and energy
439
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,680
to the pursuit of personal gain.
440
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,320
And he didn't believe in immoderate action,
441
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anywhere, any time, from anyone.
442
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:32,440
In Confucius' opinion, kings who commissioned swords like this
443
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:36,640
often abandoned virtue if it got in the way of worldly success.
444
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,680
He saw the way to transform society was to instil
445
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:45,400
the values at work in the family in the rulers of his day.
446
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,600
To understand the power they wielded,
447
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,240
you only need look at the way they were honoured in death.
448
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,200
This ruler, from around the time of Confucius,
449
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:01,360
was buried along with 26 expensive chariots
450
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,360
and 70 sacrificial horses.
451
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:07,840
What kind of connection did Confucius see
452
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:10,000
between the relationships that he'd observed
453
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,160
between father and son and the family,
454
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:13,840
and what's going on here?
455
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:16,720
Well, he looked at the fact that if you had a good father,
456
00:34:16,720 --> 00:34:18,600
he could bring up a good son.
457
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:22,880
And a good son could then respect the father, and this could work.
458
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:24,960
So he said "Well, look, if it works at this level,
459
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:26,720
"let's just take it to the top."
460
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:31,400
If the ruler views those beneath him as his children
461
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and treats them with love but with firmness, with compassion
462
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:41,040
but with integrity, then it would it roll down through the system.
463
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,160
And the Confucianist could say, "Look, you see the ruler's
464
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"living like this, you should live like this."
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And literally, it would roll down,
466
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like the clouds from the mountain and bring blessing to everyone.
467
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:57,120
So, for him, might in and of itself wasn't a problem,
468
00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,600
but if you had might, then you also had to have
469
00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,400
a kind of philosophical responsibility to your people?
470
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:07,840
Yes. Confucius continued the Zhou tradition that a ruler has
471
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:11,240
the right to rule because heaven has clearly given them
472
00:35:11,240 --> 00:35:12,800
the power and the authority.
473
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:16,200
And that's why the top, top ruler was called the son of heaven.
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00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,920
However, that mandate, that right to rule,
475
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,800
can be taken away by heaven. And a sign that heaven has taken it away
476
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is natural disasters, massive earthquakes, floods.
477
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:30,720
Confucius said if a ruler becomes corrupt
478
00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:33,600
and people are suffering through this cruelty,
479
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,080
then the people have the right to rebel.
480
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,400
And so Confucius, at one level,
481
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,800
tells you - respect, honour, duty, loyalty.
482
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:46,400
And he also said, "And if that fails, you have the right to overthrow."
483
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:47,720
Amazing trick.
484
00:36:00,320 --> 00:36:03,000
Confucius' tactic was very direct.
485
00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:06,880
He set out to influence those in power by getting
486
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:08,280
a governmental post.
487
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:12,400
One snag was his personality.
488
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:14,440
He was often seen as arrogant,
489
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,280
too blunt in the way he delivered his advice.
490
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:20,960
But he also faced a bigger problem.
491
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,920
With enemy armies numbering as many as 300,000 camped on their
492
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,520
borders, and disloyal sons plotting behind their backs,
493
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:34,920
perhaps it's no surprise that the rulers of the day
494
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:36,880
failed to take Confucius seriously.
495
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:41,480
Cultivating moral character and virtuous actions
496
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:45,520
in such precarious times was just not a priority.
497
00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,600
With rejection upon rejection,
498
00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:05,080
Confucius' faltering political career looked set to fail
499
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:08,360
and his ideas in danger of being lost to history.
500
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,680
But he was tenacious and resourceful.
501
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:15,800
In his early 50s,
502
00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,960
it looks as though he decided to change his strategy.
503
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:21,160
He gathered together a few belongings
504
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,760
and hit the road once again to continue his moral crusade.
505
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,720
Only this time, he wasn't alone.
506
00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:32,800
He was travelling together with a group of devoted students.
507
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,720
His ability to attract motivated young men
508
00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:46,680
put his mission to transform self and society back on track.
509
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:55,280
By all accounts, Confucius possessed a kind of compelling, raw charisma.
510
00:37:55,280 --> 00:37:58,760
Now, combine that with intellectual rigour, with bold,
511
00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:03,160
exciting new ideas and inspiring moral instruction,
512
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:04,800
and you've got a potent mix.
513
00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:13,920
Whilst Confucius had failed alone, a band of around 70 students could
514
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:19,160
infiltrate the corridors of power at many levels and in many states.
515
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,360
They could be a moral vanguard to advise
516
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,400
and instruct rulers on how to rule virtuously.
517
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:32,160
And for this vital role, Confucius was scrupulously meritocratic,
518
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:36,640
accepting students even from the poorest of backgrounds.
519
00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:41,240
In the Analects, Confucius said, "I have never refused instruction
520
00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:45,440
"to anyone, if, of his own accord, he comes to me."
521
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:49,560
This in itself
522
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:54,600
was a truly innovatory moment marking an historic shift.
523
00:38:54,600 --> 00:38:58,160
He was urging that Chinese society should no longer be governed
524
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,240
by an hereditary elite,
525
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:03,520
people who owed their positions simply to their bloodlines.
526
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:06,960
Rather, it was those who were most virtuous,
527
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:10,880
most concerned about the wellbeing of others, who should lead.
528
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,680
His way was open to people from any background
529
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:16,720
to rise to positions of authority.
530
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:22,240
Confucius shared his ground-breaking commitment to a kind of
531
00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:25,400
egalitarianism with Socrates and the Buddha.
532
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:30,280
Their solutions were, in theory, available to everyone.
533
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,640
But, to a greater or lesser extent,
534
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,080
when it came to women, they all seemed to have struggled.
535
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:39,400
None of them were exactly model family men.
536
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:41,720
The Buddha left his wife and child.
537
00:39:41,720 --> 00:39:45,160
Socrates treated his young wife pretty cursorily.
538
00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:48,080
But at least those two included women in their thinking
539
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:52,760
and suggested they could be part of a solution to society's problems.
540
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:55,320
However, when it comes to Confucius,
541
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:58,880
it seems he had next to no time for the female of the species.
542
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:15,280
The ultimate goal for Confucius' students was to become a junzi.
543
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:18,320
Now, this wasn't a title he'd made up.
544
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,480
Just as with ritual, he took something traditional
545
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:23,720
and gave it a potent new twist.
546
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:29,240
Junzi was an aristocratic word meaning a son of the lord,
547
00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:34,640
denoting qualities that could only belong to a privileged social elite.
548
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,880
Now, as part of his shift towards a moral elite,
549
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,120
Confucius appropriated it
550
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:45,720
and changed it to mean the ultimate moral person, a superior man.
551
00:40:46,720 --> 00:40:50,600
A new kind of gentleman, in its most literal sense.
552
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:58,960
For Confucius, education was crucial.
553
00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:01,040
Drawing on his own life experience,
554
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:05,040
he saw an unswerving commitment to critical learning
555
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,120
as the path to self cultivation.
556
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:12,200
He likened the process to polishing jade, crafting one's
557
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:16,800
virtuous character, to become the perfect moral person.
558
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:18,960
You had to know The Book Of History
559
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:24,000
to live by the example of the sage kings and to enact correct ritual.
560
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:30,000
But what was essential was to be morally alive to your environment.
561
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:34,640
To understand how to behave intuitively in any situation.
562
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:36,120
To think for yourself.
563
00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:50,480
Confucius' students joined their master,
564
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:55,080
moving across war-torn China to try to influence its errant rulers.
565
00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:01,240
They were attacked, beaten and almost starved.
566
00:42:01,240 --> 00:42:04,800
But these testing times sharpened their education.
567
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,400
The challenges they faced forced them
568
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:11,560
to engage in urgent moral debate.
569
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:13,840
They proposed solutions to their problems
570
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:15,840
and then interrogated those,
571
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:19,120
provoking the intense intellectual discussions
572
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:22,720
between master and students that you find in the Analects.
573
00:42:22,720 --> 00:42:24,560
They asked questions like,
574
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:29,280
"Should the junzi accept office in degenerate times?"
575
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:31,840
"Can you serve a corrupt master
576
00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:33,880
"if you think you can make a difference?"
577
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,400
Confucius encouraged this open-ended,
578
00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:40,560
free-thinking discussion.
579
00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,240
Yet his students still looked to him for definitive answers.
580
00:42:45,240 --> 00:42:49,800
Ultimately, they wanted to know - what was the essence of goodness?
581
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:55,160
For Confucius, there was one all-embracing virtue,
582
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:59,280
the most essential to cultivate and yet the most difficult to attain.
583
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:03,280
Something called ren.
584
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:10,400
Ren is a very splendid word idea, but what does it actually mean?
585
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,240
What quality does it imply?
586
00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:17,000
Well, many people tried to translate it differently.
587
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:22,960
It's been translated as human heartedness, as good or goodness,
588
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,920
but we prefer now to use the word simply humanity.
589
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:33,080
Because virtually all Confucian values are linked to this notion.
590
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:36,720
Courage with ren, then its real courage
591
00:43:36,720 --> 00:43:38,640
rather than just simply bravery.
592
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:43,360
Justice with ren, then it's a humane justice
593
00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:45,320
rather than just harsh punishment.
594
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:50,800
Wisdom with ren, then it's being wise not just being smart.
595
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,680
And is this something that you achieve,
596
00:43:53,680 --> 00:43:56,600
or is looking for ren a constant quest?
597
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:02,800
Every person, by definition of being a person, embodies ren.
598
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,000
In other words, every human being's capable of sympathetic
599
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:09,520
response to the external world.
600
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:15,720
But at the same time, to realise ren fully, which means human flourishing
601
00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:19,280
in the most comprehensive sense of the term,
602
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:21,520
that requires learning.
603
00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:23,000
And learning, of course,
604
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:25,120
it's not simply the acquisition of knowledge
605
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:28,120
or internalisation of skills,
606
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:32,640
but basically learning to build one's character.
607
00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:36,680
And in that sense, it's like the highest ideal.
608
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,600
At the same time, it's a minimum requirement to be human.
609
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:45,600
Do you think that Confucius felt that he'd achieved ren?
610
00:44:46,720 --> 00:44:47,960
No.
611
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:51,200
And the interesting thing is many students or followers
612
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:53,680
of Confucius also said no.
613
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:56,960
Ren requires continuous process of struggling.
614
00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:02,520
Even to the end of your life, this is still a task incomplete.
615
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:09,800
So no matter what, the struggle to be fully human continues.
616
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,120
There's something in Confucian philosophy,
617
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:19,600
a core message, that I find really, genuinely inspiring.
618
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,920
It's his golden rule taken from the Analects.
619
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:26,600
One student said, "Is there a single word that
620
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:29,920
"I should use as a rule to live my life by?"
621
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,560
The master replied,
622
00:45:32,560 --> 00:45:35,600
"That would be empathy, perhaps.
623
00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:39,760
"What you do not wish for yourself, don't do to others."
624
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,200
It's this focus on human relations and being compassionate
625
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,840
that I think comes closest to defining
626
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,440
what Confucius meant by the term ren.
627
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,160
I do love this about all three of the philosophers whose
628
00:45:58,160 --> 00:46:00,280
stories I'm investigating.
629
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:04,640
They made it clear that none of us operate in isolation.
630
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:08,360
It isn't that man is the measure of all things,
631
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:11,160
but man's relationship with man.
632
00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:25,640
Confucius continued to travel, and to teach into his later years.
633
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:30,680
But only a handful of his students went on to hold political office.
634
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,560
When Confucius was 73, he fell ill.
635
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:43,320
Unable to fulfil his mission, his final words seem defeated
636
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:44,960
and bitterly disappointed.
637
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,800
"No intelligent monarch arises.
638
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:52,080
"There is none who will make me his master.
639
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:53,920
"It is my time to die."
640
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,400
Confucius was buried here, in his hometown, Qufu.
641
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:12,160
The great transformation he had worked for his entire life
642
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:14,040
had not been fulfilled.
643
00:47:16,480 --> 00:47:21,200
But his devoted students planted trees around his grave...
644
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:23,720
and kept his dream alive.
645
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:36,840
For 300 years, Confucius' ideas continued as just one of many
646
00:47:36,840 --> 00:47:38,640
Chinese schools of thought.
647
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:42,120
Competing with the likes of Daoism,
648
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:45,760
it was unable to effect real change in a chaotic world.
649
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:52,080
But once China was reunited under all-powerful emperors,
650
00:47:52,080 --> 00:47:55,720
stability changed the political landscape.
651
00:47:55,720 --> 00:47:59,560
The first emperor of the Han Dynasty was convinced by his principal
652
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:04,960
advisor that ruling by brutality had served his predecessor badly.
653
00:48:06,240 --> 00:48:08,920
Allying himself with Confucianism -
654
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:11,720
and its ideal of rule by virtue -
655
00:48:11,720 --> 00:48:14,840
would lend to his dynasty greater legitimacy.
656
00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:19,600
Many of the values that Confucius set great store by -
657
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:21,640
the importance of education,
658
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,600
a shared cultural heritage,
659
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:25,280
an ethical government -
660
00:48:25,280 --> 00:48:29,520
had seemed an irrelevance during the chaos of his lifetime.
661
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:32,960
But these would prove hugely effective in holding
662
00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:34,680
the new empire together.
663
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,800
Successive emperors enthusiastically took up Confucian ideas,
664
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:45,560
and education was central.
665
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:48,880
THEY RECITE IN CHINESE
666
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:55,600
The poetry, arts, and music of the early Zhou were revived
667
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,960
as a means of cultivating the goodness and virtue within.
668
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:05,000
School children learnt the Confucian canon by heart,
669
00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,320
meticulously writing it out in their best calligraphy.
670
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:15,040
Knowledge of The Book Of History and rituals of the Zhou Dynasty
671
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:18,720
became a prerequisite to be part of the civil service.
672
00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:26,080
Confucian education and Confucian texts
673
00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:30,560
became a powerfully integrative force in Chinese history.
674
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:34,480
And of course it was very useful for rulers to have all that emphasis
675
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:38,720
on obedience and respect and top-down structure.
676
00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:42,120
THEY REPLY IN CHINESE
677
00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:47,480
Even those who didn't get to go to school learnt his words.
678
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,640
It's actually why we've developed that rather crass form
679
00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:56,280
"Confucius says," because for 24 centuries, right across China,
680
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:59,000
people WERE all quoting Confucius.
681
00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:05,040
# Confucius say a boy A girl, a moon
682
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:10,200
# Make wedding bells ring out In month of June
683
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,400
# Confucius say when love come Don't delay
684
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,840
# So, honey, hold me tight
685
00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:21,400
# Tonight's the night
686
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:25,880
# Remember what Confucius say. #
687
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:36,160
But all that changed in the 20th century.
688
00:50:37,520 --> 00:50:39,440
Confucianism came under attack.
689
00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:44,880
In 1919, students who wanted China to modernise
690
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:49,200
and become democratic condemned Confucius for holding them back.
691
00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:55,280
But it was Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s
692
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:59,040
that tried to annihilate all vestiges of his legacy.
693
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:04,960
His Red Guard destroyed statues, temples and texts.
694
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:08,480
They even came here,
695
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:10,040
to his burial place.
696
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:16,080
In a telegram to Chairman Mao, they wrote,
697
00:51:16,080 --> 00:51:19,120
"We have dragged out the statue of Confucius.
698
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,440
"We have torn down the plaque extolling
699
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:23,920
"the teacher of 10,000 generations.
700
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:26,520
"We have levelled Confucius' grave.
701
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:29,360
"We have destroyed."
702
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:41,640
It is really chilling coming here to see how a raging, rigid form
703
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:46,720
of an ideology tried to obliterate the memory of a man of ideas.
704
00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:57,000
CHILDREN READ TOGETHER
705
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:04,960
But thousands of years of ubiquitous Confucian education,
706
00:52:04,960 --> 00:52:07,200
particularly the exam system,
707
00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:10,480
had embedded his principles deep within Chinese culture.
708
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:15,840
By the start of the 21st century, the government began,
709
00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:18,120
once again, to embrace his ideals.
710
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,960
Today, Confucianism is undergoing a renaissance.
711
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:28,560
And education remains at the forefront.
712
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:36,280
This is a Confucian school in Qufu.
713
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:42,320
120 pupils from the ages of six to 18 study the Confucian texts
714
00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:44,600
and classical arts here.
715
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:49,120
It just one of around 3,000 schools in China
716
00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:52,240
that teaches Confucian values and philosophy.
717
00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:54,640
WOMAN SPEAKS IN CHINESE
718
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:57,600
STUDENTS REPEAT
719
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:03,200
So, what is your favourite Confucius quote?
720
00:53:07,240 --> 00:53:09,280
Why do you like Confucius?
721
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:20,400
Why did you decide to send your daughter to a Confucian school?
722
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:41,320
It is just fascinating seeing these kids being brought up with
723
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:44,440
an ancient philosophy at the heart of everything that they think
724
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:46,080
and say and do.
725
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:48,720
And actually, they seem to be having a great time.
726
00:53:48,720 --> 00:53:52,040
It's also even more incredible, though, if you think that
727
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:55,160
just a few decades ago, Confucius was considered an
728
00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:59,400
enemy of the state and none of this would have been allowed to happen.
729
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:01,800
Or if it did, it would've had to have happened in secret,
730
00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:03,440
behind closed doors
731
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:06,240
and at the risk of really severe punishment.
732
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:15,160
In modern China, greater individualism is seen to have
733
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:18,040
undermined a collective sense of right and wrong.
734
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:22,880
Confucius' resurgence can be explained by the desire
735
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:25,240
for a clearer sense of moral purpose.
736
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:30,080
But I wonder if Confucius' appeal is very simple.
737
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:33,080
He tells us that whatever our character,
738
00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:35,680
whatever situation we're born into,
739
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:40,720
being good, living a good life is a possibility.
740
00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:44,800
And that the root to goodness is wisdom.
741
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:49,880
Now, that means that as a species, in our finest form,
742
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we are all philosophers
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in the true sense of the word -
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lovers of wisdom.
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Across this series, I have examined the ideas of three inspiring minds
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of the ancient world.
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Socrates brought philosophy down from the heavens
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and into people's homes, so that through the training
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of our reason, we can achieve happiness for ourselves.
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The Buddha changed the question from,
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"Is there a god?"
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to questions like how to agree on good action
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without necessarily agreeing on what happens after death.
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Confucius said a ritual is a way to bring out the inside
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good qualities, like benevolence, like reverence.
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And if more people possess good qualities and they become real human,
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then their social life, family life, or community life
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will become peaceful.
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But, ultimately,
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what do they have to teach us in the here and now?
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Although these were ideas that were developed 25 centuries ago,
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do you think they have as much relevance to our world
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as they did to ancient China, ancient Greece, ancient India?
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If I want to exaggerate, probably even more so.
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They were confronted with a world in disintegration.
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Little rationality. Little compassion.
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And we are in a world that's much more serious.
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Because it's not simply the human world is in trouble,
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the planet is in trouble.
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And we have in our power the destruction
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of all civilisations, including the planet itself.
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So a change has to be made.
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Not just a change of a political system or economic system -
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these are absolutely necessary - but a change of mind-set.
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And the retrieval of the wisdom of Socrates, of Buddha and Confucius
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is not a question of relevance, it's a question of human survival.
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These extraordinary thinkers aren't remote historical figures.
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They're pioneers of human consciousness
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whose ideas have informed and enriched the lives
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of countless people to this day.
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Their radical responses to the social upheaval of their age
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have, in many ways, determined who we are now.
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Their message was inspiring and challenging.
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That the world isn't unknowable, unchangeable.
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By engaging with it fully, we can lead better
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and more meaningful lives.
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We have agency.
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Our minds can shape the world.
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If the mind of Confucius has made you think,
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then explore further with The Open University
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to discover how great minds have influenced our world today.
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Go to the address on the screen
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and follow the links to The Open University.
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