How are we to live? Confucious

Confucious: How are we to live?
Confucious asked 3 people what their ideal life would be

replies

Zi Lu
To be administrator of the state. Giving courage and direction to the people.

Ran You
Be administrator of the state. Bring the size of the population to appropriate size.

Gongxi Hua
To be a minor official in charge of ceremonies at ancestral temples.

Zhen Xi
"In late spring I would like to go on outings wearing ready-made spring garments with five or six friends. I would go bathing in the river Yi and enjoy the breeze on the Rain Alter. On the way home I would sing and chant poetry"

Confucious sighed and said "I admire Zhen Xi's ambition"


This was considered the highest state of being making an artform of life itself.


Feng Youlan a professor of Chinese Philosophy of Life at Peking University defined the four realms in terms of contemporary lifestyles


1. natural realm
habitual way of life - no clear concept on what they seek. do as they are accustomed to looking no further than their immediate needs.
rise sunrise, do manual labor, rest at sunset. follow the natural cycles as our primitive ancestors did.

(opposite to artists who
devote themselves to creative fantasies. create works of signficance through mania and emotion spontaneous not just operating through the rational)

2. utilitarianism
material gain. strive for personal achievement and profit. pursue property, status. rational. achieve their objectives.
(negative part - self centred)


3. moral realm of being
lean towards the collective rather than individual. work towards the common good. aware they are part of society. integrate their own needs with those of others.

4. cosmic or universal realm of being
sense of mission to help everything in the universe grow. personally committed to human society. think of themselves as "we" rather than "I". live in a kingdom of freedom rather than necessity.

Feng Youlan think most people are in the moral or utilitarianism realm.
natural state: impracticle. cosmic state too unrealistic.