He basically believed he was the Hari Seldon of China (witnessing the crumbling of the Zhou dynasty, his Heavenly mission was to “revive grand design, restore the world order under a new ethical basis, and salvage the entire civilization”). Three Things you need to know about Confucius:ġ) Though he is lauded as China's Supreme Teacher, his goal in life was to be a politician and he failed at that. Note that my five-star rating is not for The Analects per se, but specifically for the edition with Simon Leys’ excellent translation and notes (see below for more details). That’s probably why many Chinese intellectuals and progressives (who have not studied The Analects objectively, or perhaps cannot) abhor Confucius and consider his teachings part of the machinery of imperialism and feudal tyrants. they were wise sayings and stories of a great man from a certain time, that have been selectively reinterpreted by kings and heads of state, force-fed to generations of schoolchildren in various eras as a substitute for original thought, and generally manipulated out of context to subjugate a nation into obedience over and over again. It’s depressing to think that the teachings of Confucius constituted a religion in most of East Asia – i.e.
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