January Reflection on Confucius

Last night we gathered at Ruth P.'s for the first Reflection of the New Year with Dr. Kurt Johnson. As usual, we had a delicious potluck dinner. There was tuna pasta, Tex-mex kasha, chicken, salmon burgers, salad, bread pudding, and other goodies.

Constance read us a biography of Confucius, who lived about 2500 years ago. We read aloud a number of his sayings and then discussed the ones that attracted us. Several of them were paraphrases of the Christian Golden Rule, and Kurt confirmed that 18 world religions have some version of the Golden Rule.

I felt that the first two quotes were contradictory, because one of them said to emulate the worthy man but search within when one sees an unworthy man. But the other quote said to be kind to everyone but only intimate with the virtuous. It seemed to me that was a contradiction, and besides, who can claim to be completely virtuous? Just like the scene in The Idiot where people play a revolting parlor game of revealing the worst things they have ever done, if we all uncovered our worst actions, would any of us be virtuous and worthy of intimate friendship?

I said I was reminded of our friend, the late Richard Price, who once told me a friend of his was coming up to visit. Then he dropped into the conversation that this person was a pickpocket. When I expressed some shock, he said, "But he's not a bad person. That's just what he does for a living."

It seemed to me that this was on a higher plane than Confucius's warning to only be intimate with the virtuous. As Kurt explained, in Confucius's time, there were no laws in China or Japan governing business transactions. There were no written contacts and business was transacted solely on one's word. Therefore, much of Confucius's wise sayings can be read in that context, of a protocol that should be observed in order to protect one's word and one's business dealings. Instead, his sayings became the basis of a religion, albeit one that is not God-centered.

To introduce some levity and fun, Kurt also brought along several of the "Confucius say" jokes that were popular in the sixties. Every so often we would pause in reading and discussing the actual quotes to interject one of these jokes. That was a great touch and we all got a good laugh out of them. I remember those jokes from the inside of Chinese fortune cookies!

The company was great, the discussion was excellent, and we were up to our usual high standards of potluck cooking. Kudos to Ruth for hosting, to Constance for her research on Confucius, and especially to Kurt for leading us in these monthly Reflections. Thank you!