Readings & Dialogues - 《论语》

I shouldn't be surprised to learn that you've found the value of life and existence. Wonderful! ：）

Incorporating biblical doctrines into the teaching of Analects of Confucius. You are amazing. ：）

论语全文
www.liaotuo.com/ctwh/jing/13j/21915.html

# A brief comment
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Noah and I started to read together as a way to enjoy our time of fellowship.

From the later part of last year, we have been enjoying the reading and discussion on the Analects of Confucians. I have found it more than enjoyable to me, but it began to make sense for many of the things God thread in my life. I like to compare this process to one of Tim’s visions: The Lord is wise and meticulous in the mending the beauty of His tapestry to “cloth us”.

To quote Wikipedia:

Confucius believed that the welfare of a country depended on the moral cultivation of its people, beginning from the nation's leadership. He believed that individuals could begin to cultivate an all-encompassing sense of virtue through ren, and that the most basic step to cultivating ren was devotion to one's parents and older siblings. He taught that one's individual desires do not need to be suppressed, but that people should be educated to reconcile their desires via rituals and forms of propriety, through which people could demonstrate their respect for others and their responsible roles in society.
Confucius taught that a ruler's sense of virtue was his primary prerequisite for leadership. His primary goal in educating his students was to produce ethically well-cultivated men who would carry themselves with gravity, speak correctly, and demonstrate consummate integrity in all things.

A side note: The basics of the summary is okey, but still very biased and obviously through the lens of modern thinking, as we often do when interpreting the canons or classics from ancient time. For example:"devotion to one's parents and older siblings” is a very poor and superficial way of looking at the teachings in this regard. What Confucius was really interested in sharing is to build a good family culture wherein love of others, if you will, a compassionate and righteous way of fostering Godly relationships, is nurtured in a family setting thru the love of those with us. This is the greatest insight Jesus offered us concerning the Law of Moses when expounding second most important command - love your neighbor as love yourself, which in essence is brotherly love (love for your own kin). Much can be expounded on this topic. It is interesting to know that these teachings acknowledge that such a wisdom of love, or such a love of wisdom, is not sourced from man himself. It has to be divinely inspired. That is it is pattered and blessed from above. It carries with it a vision of a life, of a family, of a nation (people) and of the whole world or creation. A life of propriety or a “fulfilled” life is not a product of rules, but of heart, whereas its enlightenment and education is done thru the discipleship and disciplines of life in a given settings.

When I was toiling on the bench. In great despair and disappointment of the many schools of human thoughts in its incapacity to care for and build a culture of goodness, fairness and love. With the great anguish of my broken heart, I called on upon the name, in no good and proper manner, to Heaven or God from Above, which was mentioned in our classic writings. I never expected Him to answer me. But He did, after a while, when I gained my senses to ask who He is. He told that He is the God of the Bible. Thereafter, I begin to learn to hear and follow His voice, then received His Son as my Savior and Lord, and began to associate with different brands of Christianity afforded me. But due to the bias and limitation of my thinking, I had been, for a long time, very reluctant to reflect or think through, my initial “experience of conversion”. I had thought the God mentioned by the Chinese ancients certainly in an idol or false god of man’s making and in no way can be the God of the west, or later, the God of the Hebrews or Israelites.

There are many miraculous experiences in my life that led to me know this day how wrong and biased I was. Unfortunately, in the history to Chinese History, this way of pairing the God worshipped in ancient China with the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses and David, the Father God of our Lord Jesus Christ, is either considered as blasphemously unscrupulous or shallow gimmicks. Seldom is it be present in a being presented or learned in an experiential or in-depth way. This is unfortunately enhanced by the divisions of human opinions and sophistications. Some wonderful forerunners of Chinese christianity seemed seldom dare to broach the topic, such as Watchman Nee, whose whole theology and ways of ministry still confined mainly by the Protestant tradition of his day.

Interestingly, such a conclusion was not lost in the earlier Chinese Christians, esp. an eminent one would be Kang-Xi, the most excellent Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who was, in all genuine account, a true believer of Christianity. To certain extent, he was able to reject the prejudices of the papal emissaries at the time and distill a good understanding along this line. I will need more study to get a better picture of this.

For fun fact, here is a poem of this wonderful soul.

《十字架赞》
成功十架血成溪，百丈恩流分自西；
身列四衙半夜路，徒方三背两番鸡；
五千鞭挞寸肤裂，六尺悬垂二盗齐；
惨恸八埃惊九品，七言一毕万灵啼。

Translation by Immanuel:

# Ode To The Cross
"It is finished" when the Blood from the Cross flowed into a stream
Thereafter the great river of grace issued forth from the West
He was dragged to four counts and pushed on the road at mid-night
During which time Peter (a disciple) disowned him thrice and the roster crowed twice
His skin was torn by the thousands of stripes
His body was hanged together with two thieves
His cry moved the eight ends of the earth and nine clouds (levels) of heaven
Once He uttered the seven words ten thousands spirits (all heaven) began to mourn

Thank you so much for sharing!  Nice translation!  ：）


"徒方三背两番鸡 During which time Peter (a disciple) disowned him thrice and the roster crowed twice" ：


The Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio



Lament of Saint Peter by Claude Vignon - 1623-1630