"BEIJING--One Thursday morning in June, 200 senior officials crammed into an auditorium in the Communist Party's top training academy to study a revolutionary idea at the heart of President Xi Jinping's vision for China. They didn't come to brush up on Marx, Lenin or Mao, staple fodder at the Central Party School since the 1950s. Nor were they honing their grasp of the state-guided capitalism that defined the nation for the last 35 years. They came to hear Wang Jie, a professor of ancient Chinese philosophy and a figure in the country's next ideological wave: a renaissance of the traditional culture the Communist Party once sought to destroy . . . ."
--Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2015
The old is new again. Adversity will have that effect, sending a culture back to its roots for rebirth, seeking the source of its old greatness after new gods--like Marx and Mao--have failed, and their doctrines have collapsed along with the Chinese stock market. Then the time is ripe to seek new strength in the old wisdom.
As in olden times. the Chinese realize Master Kong has much to teach. And not just the Chinese. That's how I found myself once again at the door of the dim little Chinese restaurant where the master usually hangs out. The aroma of wonton and orange-flavored beef greeted me as I entered, welcoming and soothing. The tea was already brewing, the steam rising like good sense above vain things.
It had been a long time, yet it was as if the old man had been expecting me. He greeted me with the hint of a smile, neither obsequious nor haughty, but welcoming without showing it.
"Inscrutable as ever," I murmured, easing into the booth across from him.
"See how he operates, observe what path he follows, examine what he is satisfied with, and how can a man remain inscrutable, how can a man remain inscrutable?" (Book 2, Saying 10.)
"Easy enough for you to say," I replied, "sitting here removed from it all. But what about those of us out there peddling our opinions in the public prints who must put up with the slings and arrows of readers? Not to mention the condescension of life's winners and the anger of its losers, the envy of the poor and the indifference of the rich, the stupidity of clods and the charity of our betters, the jealousy of the untalented and, worst of all, the pity of the gifted. All of it is intolerable."
"One does not worry about the fact that other people do not appreciate one. One worries about not appreciating other people." (Book 1, Saying 16.)
"But we can't all be sages, Master Kong. Some of us are just inky wretches. I don't ask a philosopher to empathize, but can't you sympathize?"
"Not to be resentful at others' failure to appreciate one--surely that is to be a true gentleman?" (Book 1, Saying 1.)
"The tea is delicious, master, and fortifying. Much like your words. But may I be so bold as to point out that you're not talking to a gentleman, just an inky wretch. Anyway, how could you tell a gentleman these days even if you ran across one? Aren't they extinct?"
"The gentleman puts his sayings into action before adopting them as mottoes. The gentleman has universal sympathies and is not partisan. The small man is partisan and does not have universal sympathies." (Book 2, Sayings 13-14.)
"Yeah, well, a philosopher might say that, but the rest of us have got to operate in a two-party system. I notice you steer clear of politics. How come you never took part in government?"
"It is because I have not yet been tried out in office that I have developed accomplishments." (Book 9, Saying 7.)
"Is there any way to boil down your counsel into some simple principle that even a round-eyed barbarian like me might grasp?"
"If you do not want others to inflict something on you, you also should want to avoid inflicting it on others." (Book 5, Saying 12.)
"Good advice. It sounds familiar somehow. Like a golden rule. But I need something, well, more original. If I'm going to get a column out of this interview, I'll need something zingier, something with a clever twist to it."
"Clever words upset virtue. (Book 15, Saying 27.) What is the point of eloquence? Those who confront others with a ready tongue are often hated by them." (Book 5, Saying 5.)
"Yeah, so I've discovered, but the virtuous are often hated, too, especially those who aren't eloquent."
"I have never come across anyone who admires virtue as much as he admires sexual attraction." (Book 9, Saying 18.)
"How perceptive. We are sexual creatures, after all. Male and female He made us. But what about those of us who aren't so attractive, and risk criticism every day? We yearn for admiration instead."
"My disciple Hui is of no help to me. In my words there is nothing which he does not admire." (Book 11, Saying 4.)
"I suppose we do learn from our critics."
"One does not worry about the fact that other people do not appreciate one. One worries about not being worthy." (Book 14, Saying 30.)
"Thank you, Master Kong, and not just for the tea."
The master smiled a smile bestowed with a certain guarded but clear beneficence. I bowed in farewell. And gratitude. The old man does put things in perspective. The food looked good in the Chinese place, but I passed it up. I already had my take-out.
Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. E-mail him at:
pgreenberg@arkansasonline.com
Editorial on 11/22/2015