Confucianism is an Outside School

7/27/2019 Confucianism is an Outside School

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Confucianism is an outside school

Rodney Ohebsion

The world is filled with a wide variety of ideas on topics like what and how we

think and feel, what and how we ought to think and feel, how we ought to live,etc. These ideas are usually referred to as psychology and philosophy, and tosome extent, spirituality and religion. And these ideas are often groupedtogether into systems, philosophical "schools," etc., like Buddhism,Freudianism, etc.

Some systems / schools encourage you to confine yourself to certain teachingsand people, while others are more receptive to outside ideas and don't rely ona Master-Disciple type arrangement.

The Confucian school is in the latter category.

Confucian and non-Confucian texts make a point of mentioning how Confucius learned from everyone (including members of supposed rivalschools, as well as children), he didn't have a primary teacher [Analects19:22], and he didn't follow one school of thought. And even Confucius's main"disciples" weren't purely Confucius followers who belonged to a Confucianschool and studied mostly Confucian teachings.

If someone's doesn't learn from a wide variety of people, or he doesn't go beyond a body of ideas from one school, then he's not really following the

Confucian Way. Learning from one person or sticking to one school of thoughtis contrary to the Confucian Way--even if you're learning from Confuciushimself, and your school is the orthodox Confucian school. [Mencius 7:2:26,Hsun Tzu Ch. 21]



Why should we follow an outside school and learn from a wide variety of people?

People are different. No one's perfect, and no one can do everything. Allindividuals have their own specific pluses and minuses [Analects 19:@2], andtheir qualities aren't always as consistent as they seem. That's true when itcomes to what people are and do as human beings all in all, and it's even true when it comes to what they are and do within a somewhat specific field.

When learning from, interacting with, or working with people, we shouldrealize all of that, as opposed to going far in thinking that people follow a

general model of human nature, or that an individual is mostly pluses orminuses, or that if someone has one quality, he probably has many similarqualities.

We also shouldn't get too focused in on individual qualities to the point where we don't see the wholeness of being a human.

Confucius often stated that his disciples were his superior in certain ways. Buthe also pointed out that they often got carried away with a good quality. "YenHui is compassionate, but is also inflexible about it. Tzu Kung is a greatspeaker, but he doesn't know when to stop talking. Tzu Lu is very brave, but helacks prudence. Tzu Chang is very dignified, but unpleasant in socialinteractions." [ Lieh Tzu Ch. 4]

When those excellent qualities are looked at from the standpoint of being a

human all in all, their drawbacks and limitations are evident, and we can seethe specific pluses and minuses of individuals, as well as what makes anindividual a superior person. We should look at things that way when we learnfrom others.

Confucian teachings also distinguish true progress from an exchange that brings no or little net gain.

Suppose someone devotes himself to being more [insert quality here] or doingmore [insert activity here]. Doing that will require him to disregard many things that he probably shouldn't disregard. The pluses of becoming more[insert quality here] or doing more [insert activity here] might not exceed theminuses when it comes to other areas. If he devotes himself to being more



[insert quality here] or doing more [insert activity here], then in a certainsense, he'll be making an exchange.

We shouldn't become consumed with something like being more [insertquality here] or doing more [insert activity here], and believe that it's morethan it really is.

We also shouldn't consider someone (ourselves or others) a superior person just because he meets a few difficult standards (within, say, a code of ethics orhonor) while disregarding many other things [Analects 5:18, 9:2, 14:2].

And we shouldn't consider someone (ourselves or others) a superior person just because he's distinguished in a field. We should see the value of being both a well rounded person and a specialist.

If extremely well rounded individuals existed, if people weren't especially prone to A-oriented thinking, and if society had a broader ideal of a superiorperson, then we could just learn mainly from a few people, and stick to oneschool of thought. But since none of that is the case, we need to learn from a variety of people, and we need to go beyond one inside school.

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Confucianism is an Outside School