"Zi Gong asked,' Who can walk all his life without saying a word?' Confucius said,' I forgive you. Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. "Zi Gong asked Confucius: Is there a sentence that can summarize and standardize his life's behavior? Confucius said:' It should be forgiveness. Don't impose on others what you don't want to do. "
Forgiveness is ideological in nature, and it should not be said in terms of regulating people's behavior. Then why did Confucius say it together? There are several reasons:
The Western Zhou Dynasty was able to completely exploit people and slave labor, and the life of officials and nobles was very rich. The more refined the life of officials and nobles, the more polite they are. In addition to the etiquette of political behavior, we can see from the Analects that they don't eat any improperly cut meat, spend the night and so on. This is a ritual in their lives. However, rulers and nobles are extravagant and have children at will, and the ranks of orthodox children are infinitely expanded. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, as a result, scholars began to live in poverty, hunger and cold, and an adequate life was enjoyed by those who dared to violate the regulations, contribute money, serve the people as slaves, or work in the fields by themselves. Old-school families are born poor and have no labor. Confucius, who insisted on being conservative, was afraid that his students could not resist himself and tended to reformist ideas, so he told everyone to overcome themselves and adhere to the original gentleman style, and advocated "see no evil, don't listen to evil, don't say evil, don't move if you are evil." However, although such Confucian scholars say that they should persist, the reality has to make some people move, or make small moves. For example, when Chen and Cai were trapped, Confucius saw Yan Hui grabbing the rice in the pot with his hand, which violated the manners and etiquette of a gentleman. Facing his favorite students, Confucius immediately pretended not to see them. Even Confucius privately told Zigong to exchange the jade as a symbol of identity for money to do business (see The Analects of Confucius). Zi Han), he kept it himself. So Yan Hui later told Confucius that something dirty had fallen into the rice, and he was reluctant to throw it away, so he caught it and ate it. Confucius lamented that it is too difficult to understand a person.
When we grasp these points, we can understand what Zi Gong asked to sum up and standardize his life behavior, and what kind of "forgiveness" Confucius thought. In other words, at that time, everyone could not insist on anything. If everyone sees something against etiquette, just like Confucius, pretend not to see it. Whatever the reason, they can only endure, forgive themselves, do their own thing, and don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. But Confucius didn't think that when they were forgiven in their hearts and didn't do what they wanted them to do to others, the standard code of conduct would become meaningless here, and it would be self-contradictory to advocate ceremony.