The teachings of Confucius, or Kun Fu-Tzu ("Teacher Kun"), is a philosophical ethical system, not a religion. However, we have the right to put him on a par with the great prophets and reformers of religious movements. Confucianism teaches to live in accordance with tradition, revealing the depths of meaning in the already known. The secret of Confucius lies in the openness of his consciousness to the world.
Even the German thinker Arthur Schopenhauer drew attention to the fact that the word "god" is absent in the Chinese language. In fact, of course, it is, it sounds like "lao tian e" and literally translates as "heavenly grandfather", but the great philosopher might not have known this. Nevertheless, the careless phrase thrown by him was remembered both by many of his contemporaries and their descendants. For example, the famous Russian religious scholar Yevgeny Alekseevich Torchinov explained this phenomenon of Chinese culture in the following way: “The word shen means: the psychic principle in a person (compare: shensue -“theology”), spirit in its difference from the body (spirit of the deceased), something unusual, sacred, elemental, natural deity (deity of wind, rain, mountains, etc.).
Perhaps that is why Christian missionaries could not decide how to translate the word "god" into Chinese, and the first Jesuit preachers generally preferred the teusa transcription (from Latin deus and Greek theos), although it is possible that all this was from - for poor knowledge of the language, or, perhaps, they have never heard about "lao tian e". However, be that as it may, the phenomenon of Confucius, oddly enough, lies in the fact that this founder of the still very popular religion about God and generally about things that go beyond this reality, preferred not to talk. All his teachings and reasoning relate mainly to various aspects of earthly life.
Like the ancient Greek sage Socrates, who did not leave not only distant descendants, but also his contemporaries-disciples, a written presentation of his teachings, Master Kun himself did not write down either his instructions or sayings. All the abundance of thoughts collected under the cover with authorship of Socrates or Confucius belongs to their students. Sinologists have long come to the opinion that the book "Lunyu" can serve as reliable evidence of the life (and teachings) of Confucius, the title of which is traditionally translated into Russian as "Conversations and Judgments", and the well-known modern expert on China V. V. Malyavin suggests speaking “Discussed speeches”. The book compiled after the death of the teacher consists of independent, very different in style and content, short plots, individual sayings and sometimes ordinary banal events.
The Lunyu does not mention the name of Confucius's father, who is called the "man from Zou" there. Teacher Kun himself considered himself a descendant of the Sung nobility, and in the Sung kingdom there was only one clan bearing the surname Kun. “It is another matter that Confucius, the son of a minor military leader, could not emphasize his noble origin in the face of much more eminent and powerful people,” historian Vladimir Malyavin writes in his biography of Confucius. - Yes, he did not think about it: for him it was always important not the nobility of blood, but the nobility of the heart. " In many ways, it was the activities of Confucius that contributed to the fact that "aristocracy in China did not take on the class coloration that it had, say, in medieval Europe or Japan."
And yet Confucius came from a noble family, like all the founders of religious teachings and other outstanding figures of past centuries. Now only children and die-hard traditionalists believe in the tale of a simple shepherdess from the village of Domremi. Such people still believe that they did not swim in the New World before Columbus, and the Great Pyramids at Giza served only as tombs for the Egyptian pharaohs. Despite the newly emerging information, these heirs of positivism are muttering outdated tales.
The old warrior Shulian He knew the words of love, but his wife, despite numerous pregnancies, gave birth exclusively to girls. The neighbors made fun of the big guy who couldn't make a boy. And it's not just ridicule, but also old traditions. Only male heirs have the right to offer sacrificial meat and wine to the souls of the departed. Shulian He was forced to take a second wife. A year later, she brought him a son, whose appearance did not please his father - the boy was born lame. The custom strictly forbade cripples to make sacrifices to their deceased ancestors.
A seventy-year-old man found a man about whom it is only known that he bore the surname Yan. He had three daughters: two overripe, overstepping their 20th birthday, and the youngest named Zhengzai, who did not reach marriageable age, she was not yet 16 years old. She decided to fulfill her father's will, to become related to the local boss. The famous Chinese historian and writer Sima Qian reported that Shuliang He entered into a “wild marriage”, contracted in violation of custom and not entirely legitimate.
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The ancient Chinese reasoned that the number eight rules a man's life: at eight months he has milk teeth, at eight he loses them, at 16 (8 × 2 = 16) he reaches maturity, and at the age of 64 (8 × 8 = 64) masculine strength leaves him. However, after a short time, the pullets suffered. According to one of the legends, the appearance of Confucius was preceded by the appearance of a unicorn (in Chinese - jilin) - a magical beast with a horse's body, a bull's tail and a single horn growing from the forehead. This indicated the arrival of a great sage into the world.
Ancient chronicles indicate the exact date of birth of Kong Tzu - September 22, 551 BC. On the day of the autumnal equinox, wonderful music poured from heaven and an unknown voice said: "The sky, heeding your prayers, will grant you the wisest of the sons of men." A couple of dragons were frolicking over the roof of the house where the baby lay, and “five elders entered the courtyard”. Such fantastic stories about the birth of Confucius are darkness.
The birth of a child took place thanks to the intercession of the spirit of Mud Hill - Nitsyu. And since the baby was born with a sagging crown, which made the shape of his head resemble the outline of Mud Hill, the father named his son Qiu. According to custom, the child was given a middle name - Zhunni, which means Middle Ni. And all because of Mud Hill. Soon after the death of her father, her mother left these places and settled in a small house at the south-western corner of the city wall of the capital of Lu - Qufu.
When Sima Qian, talking about the youth of Master Kun, writes that he “suffered hardship and was poor,” this can be both true and a common cliché. In the biographies of famous men, the Chinese often sinned with this expression, which with some degree of convention can be compared with the American one - "a man who made himself."
The young man's appearance was rather ugly: a massive forehead, overly long ears, bulging and slightly whitish eyes, a raised upper lip, exposing two surprisingly large front teeth, unusually tall and overweight physique. One cannot help recalling the ugliness of the fabulist Aesop. But young Zhunni had not yet written any fables or teachings. “At the age of 15, I turned my thoughts to teaching,” Confucius would later tell his disciples. This is not said about school education, which began earlier. This is the beginning of realizing your own teaching. The young man was literate by that time and highly valued book knowledge. In this he differs from the founders of great religions - Buddha, who taught an inexplicable clarity of consciousness, Jesus, who did not read books, and Muhammad, who was illiterate.
At the age of 19, Confucius got married, but almost no information about his wife has survived. It is only known, and even then from later sources, that she came from the service Ji family in the Song kingdom. A year after the wedding, Kong Qiu gave birth to a son. On this occasion, the ruler of the kingdom sent the young daddy a carp - a traditional symbol of good luck. Confucius gave his firstborn the name Li ("carp") and the nickname Boyuy ("elder fish"). Apparently, he hoped for the appearance of other sons, but his wife gave birth to him only a daughter. The wife did not take part in the affairs of her husband, and Kun Qiu himself he easily embarked on long journeys, considering it unworthy of a real man to sit at a woman's skirt.
Confucius's attitude to women is eloquently expressed by his following aphorism: “Building correct relationships is most difficult with women and low people. If you bring them closer to you, they will become cheeky, if you move them away from you, they will hate."
Confucius' son Boyuy died before he was 50 years old. Soon after this loss, he lost Yan Yuan, the heir to his teaching. Having learned to be imperturbable and set examples himself, Master Kun could not restrain himself and, sobbing, exclaimed: "The sky wants to destroy me!" The life path of Confucius ended in 479 BC. All the capital's elite gathered for his funeral. Heart-felt speeches were made over the grave. The teacher was buried where he himself, shortly before his death, chose a place - on the bank of a small river, under the shade of cypress trees.
Confucius' chronicle of "Spring and Autumn" ends with a story about the death of a unicorn. There are lines like this: “I don't blame Heaven, I don't blame people! I only give myself over to learning and nurture lofty aspirations in myself. Probably only Heaven knows who I am!"
IGOR BOKKER