By Dr. Quan Le
IntroductionSometimes, anecdotes can be incredibly revealing : For instance, there is a common adage which features an Indian proudly saying to his Chinese friend “Look at the 135 Indian CEOs managing American companies”. His Chinese friend says in turn “Look at the 135 (in 2023) Chinese corporations on the Fortune Global 500 List created, owned and managed by the Chinese.” For the Chinese Confucian culture, thousands of years of thought have gone into the problem of the Aristocratic leadership dubbed ‘gentlemen’ which has always wielded a disproportionately large amount of influence in society. The danger for corruption is obviously great when high degrees of literacy accompany high degrees of capability to satisfy bodily pleasures and if a balance is not discovered, such distorted leaders can do the greatest damage to society at large. It is thus no surprise that the goal of Chinese cultural education which cultivates the minds, bodies and souls of ‘gentlemen’ has aimed towards both encouraging a healthy enjoyment of the bodily senses and having fun, while wielding wealth, power and prestige… so long as they are tempered by the higher ideals to which healthy souls should aspire. Wealth, power and a dazzling reputation, must not be considered ends unto themselves, but mere tools for higher and nobler purposes. It is the purpose of the following essay to elucidate these principles of Confucian cultural development with a focus on the education of ‘aristocratic men’ in order to better appreciate what dynamics are animating Asian thinking and universal history more broadly. An exploration of the Two FacesThere are two words in Chinese which are translated as ‘face’ in English. The gentleman is the person having his two faces integrated harmoniously. This is NOT to be confounded with the disharmonious “integration” proposed by occultists who attempt to infuse a face of lies with a face of truth, or a face of goodness with a face of evil in some Janus-like mysticism. The ideal of the healthy integration of the two gentlemen to which I am referring is perfectly expressed by the six following Chinese characters: The first ‘face’ in Chinese is LIAN 脸 (Lian2) : The first ‘face’ is your Original Face, the one the Whole granted you before your parents were born.
On the plane of Time, if self-cultivation is real, Beauty will give rise to the inner sense of Justice; Goodness to Valor & Humanity (Moderation); Truth to Wisdom. Justice, Valor, Humanity and Wisdom were called by the Greeks and the Chinese “the Four Cardinal Virtues.” There is a more down-to-earth reading of Lian 脸 (Lian2), simply meaning your social reputation. For me, that understanding is part of the second ‘face’. The second ‘face’ in Chinese is MIAN ZI 面 子 (Mian4 Zi) : This face is simply about your lineage, your social status,your reputation, your health, your wealth, your power, your prestige, your networks. It also concerns your technical and professional knowledge, the information you master for navigating within your society. Your social skills, you being streetwise enough and capable of an easygoing attitude when interacting with others and creating consensus when needed. In 3 words : THE LOWER TRIGRAM (see image above). The vignette at the very beginning of the article illustrates, for me, the essential difference between the mindset of a Sovereign people and the mentality of a subjugated/enslaved/enthralled/controlled/mesmerized people having been ruled for most of the millennium before 1947 by foreigners. The foreigners which ruled over this people for nearly 1000 years included the Mongols, by the Central Asia Turks, by the Pathans (meaning the Afghans and the Iranians), by the British and to a lesser degree by the Frenchmen. The governing elites of the west which, in recent centuries have wielded the greatest (and most destructive) influence upon the diverse cultures of the world illustrated by the example above, we may call the “Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American Establishment” (KFC-AZAEL). I have chosen this title as it most befits the essential character of this peculiar expression of oligarchism which appears to have no capacity for nurturing a harmony between power, virtues and base lusts making this oligarchy incapable of even a modicum of practical competence and obsessed with restoring systems of control akin to feudalism (total enslavement and stupidification of their subjects) and thus qualify as the worst and most incompetent forms of government (ie: Khakistocracy). The term “Anglo-Zio-American Establishment” should need no explanation. The American component of the Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment (KFC-AZAEL) is continuing the job which the British component of the same gang APPARENTLY relinquished 76 years ago, in 1947. Sovereignty is first and foremost the Sovereignty of the MIND. And MIND Sovereignty is deeply correlated with the epistemological Journey– both personal & collective. All the other forms of Sovereignty (political, economic, social, financial, scientific, technological, diplomatic, artistic, etc.) are simply the natural and expected consequences of the essential and central Sovereignty of the MIND, at the personal and collective levels. There is a direct CAUSAL relation between the achievement of THE PERSONAL EPISTEMOLOGICAL JOURNEY and the PERSONAL MIND SOVEREIGNTY. The personal epistemological Journey is potentially achieved with the right role models and going through a Classical Education. A Classical Education is also called a Timeless Education or an Aristocratic Education. For the people born in the upper class or the upper middle class, that Classical Education is most of the time given by their families and even in their cases, success is not guaranteed. Receiving a Classical Education does not guarantee at all *** THE EXISTENTIAL ACHIEVEMENT of the epistemological Journey ***, far from it. For the others, they need a fair & powerful State capable of maintaining order, creating wealth and also offering the epistemological Journey (the Classical Education) for all. Please don’t mix up Classical/Aristocratic/Timeless Education with the concept of “professional training”. They are perfectly distinct. I don’t need to give any explanation concerning “professional training”- which is the learning of a trade. The Classical/Aristocratic/Timeless Education is not the learning of a trade. It is the epistemological Journey/Overture to the Timeless Reality of the Eternal/Timeless Forms of Beauty : Goodness : Truth. 道 : 势 : 历 史 (Dao4 : Shi4 : Li4 Shi3) aka TEMPUS : KAIROS : CHRONOS aka TIMELESSNESS (TRUTH-Goodness-Beauty) : epistemological JOURNEY : TIME (FACTS & MYTHS) aka BEING (Truth:Goodness:Beauty)’: epistemological OVERTURE : BECOMING (Wisdom:Valor:Humanity:Justice) If you visualize the 3 realities (BEING : OVERTURE : BECOMING) with a triangle, the epistemological Journey is at the center of the figure dynamically connecting TRUTH (The Timeless Forms of Beauty : Goodness : Truth) at the top vertex, MYTHS (narratives, storytelling) at the left vertex and FACTS (measures in space-time-energy-matter) at the other end of the Time Line (Becoming) at the right vertex. The bottom segment of the triangle is for HERMENEUTICS. The left segment is for THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. The right segment is for HEURISTICS.
The aristocratic men living at the mental center of the axio-epistemo-political triangle make perfectly the distinction between TRUTH, MYTHS and FACTS & are thus capable of orienting their decisions to the right direction of Universal History. The collective Sovereign MIND of a given Sovereign Nation is mostly the co-existent EXISTENTIAL SHINING FORTH of the personal Sovereign Minds coming from all the members of its OPEN ARISTOCRATIC OLIGARCHY (“aristocratic” meaning “rule by the best” and “oligarchy” simply meaning “rule by the few”) working together for realizing the common endeavor, The Common Good (Res Publica). 君 子 和 而 不 同 : Jun1 Zi3 He2 Er2 Bu4 Tong2 In the case of China, President Xi Jinping offered the Timeless Idea expressed as 人 类 命 运 共 同 体 (Ren2 Lei4 Ming4 Yun4 Gong4 Tong2 Ti3) or “The Human Community with a Shared Future”. This Timeless Idea is translated in Time by four interrelated endeavors : 1- The Global Development Initiative Hopefully, that open aristocratic oligarchy will expand with time, in order to include ever more worthy people from all walks of life having achieved existentially their own personal epistemological Journey and capable of contributing to the Common Good. As I already wrote many times, but a deep & encompassing Truth deserves to be repeated on numerous occasions: THE NUMBER ONE SCOURGE ON EARTH IS THE NON-SOVEREIGN PERSON– THE PERSON DEVOID OF A SOVEREIGN MIND. All the woes having happened on Earth during the last two centuries had at their center a non-Sovereign person, a group of non-Sovereign persons or groups of non-Sovereign persons. I want to focus on the two Centuries of Darkness (1839-2022); the two centuries which were monopolized by the KFC-AZAEL (Kakistocratic Feudal Conglomerate of the Anglo-Zio-American EstabLishment); the two centuries during which happened the two World Wars, 1914-1918 & 1939-1945. What is happening right now in Ukraine, in Palestine, in Japan, in South Korea, in India, etc., is essentially because of the non-Sovereign persons manipulated by the KFC-AZAEL’s kakistocrats for their own questionable goals, needless to say. At the risk of offending people, which is not my intention; except for the last three Sovereign Civilizational States on Earth (China, Russia, Iran) & I add North Korea in extremis, all the other countries (because of different weaknesses and deficiencies not so easy to correct) are not sovereign and I control myself for avoiding discourteous words. OF MINDS & MEN (II) |
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••• The Analects : one of the Four Books addressing the epistemological growth from the perspective of the Ru Jia 儒 家 (Ru2 Jia1, the School of the Scholars) written during Confucius’ time and the time of his immediate disciples; the Analects have been edited many times by the Confucian scholars between 479 BCE (the year Confucius died) and the year having witnessed the destruction of the Lu Principality- meaning 249 BCE.
The other three are :
••• The Great Learning 大 学 (Da4 Xue3) written by a young student of Confucius,Zeng Shen 曾 参 (Zeng1 Shen1) (505-435 BCE).
••• The Doctrine of the Mean 中 庸 (Zhong1 Yong1) written by Confucius’ grandson, Kong Ji (483-402 BCE),better known with his social name, Zisi 子 思 (Zi3 Si1).
••• The Mencius 孟 子 (Meng4 Zi3, Master Meng), the eponymous book created by Meng Ke 孟 轲 (Meng4 Ke1), the Confucianist philosopher born in 372 BCE and who died in 289 BCE.
The Five Classics come from the direct cultural legacy of the Kings of the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 BCE) aka the Ji 姬 Royal House.
1- The first Confucianist Classic is the Book of Change, Yi Jing 易 經 (Yi4 Jing1 for the pin-yin, the official and international transliteration system; I Ching for the older Wade-Giles transliteration system).
The other Confucianist Classics are :
2- The Book of Documents 书 經 (Shu1 Jing1)
also known as The Venerated Documents 尚 书 (Shang4 Shu1)
3- The Book of Songs 诗 經 (Shi1 Jing1)
4- The three books on Rituals counted as one : a.The Zhou Rituals 周 礼 (Zhou1 Li3)
b. The Records on Rituals 礼 记 (Li3 Ji4) c. Rituals & Ceremonies 礼 仪 (Li3 Yi2)
5- Spring & Autumn 春 秋 (Chun1 Qiu1) : The Lu 鲁 Principality Annals covering the
period from 722 to 481 BCE. Three interpretations: 1- ‘Gongyang’ upholding Universal
History, 2- ‘Zuo’ for the geopolitical perspective, 3- ‘Guliang’ for the ritualistic view.
Confucius is a Philosopher King in the ‘Gongyang’ interpretation & the end goal of
Universal History is to achieve Da Yi Tong 大 一 统 (Da4 Yi1 Tong3), the Great Unity
of the cosmological and human orders, the Upper & Lower Trigrams integrated.
The School of the Scholars is called Confucianism by the Westerners in Confucius’ honor.
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That School for Aristocrats has been created by the Ji 姬 Royal House, aka the Zhou 周 dynasty (1046-256 BCE).The original purpose of this School for Aristocrats was for educating the children of the King & those of the King’s companions. The King’s companions are the aristocrats. When Confucius stated that he did not invent anything but only transmitted the Classical Education coming from the Zhou dynasty, it was not false modesty but simply the plain truth. Confucius decided to give that Classical/Aristocratic/Timeless Education to all. That was his immarcescible glory.
True knowledge being really difficult but not impossible to achieve, I also wish to invoke the aegis of the following four men :
** Socrates (469-399 BCE) having upheld the unity of true knowledge and action.
** Plato (427-347 BCE) wrote around 40 dialogues addressing all the major philosophical topics. I will name here his seven dialogues focusing on true learning, on the epistemological growth. The second to the fourth dialogues form a trilogy. The seven dialogues constitute a philosophical septuor with the first dialogue as a general introduction and ascending from the second to the seventh dialogues the stages of the epistemological adventure.
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Plato’s Seven Dialogues on True Learning
1- Euthyphro : On Holiness or the Wholeness of the Mind.
2- Theaetetus : The epistemological growth at the first three stages of the Mind development.
a. Eikasia I (Shadows I) : the senses-perceptions
b. Eikasia II (Shadows II) : the intellect (wording, imaging, conceptualizing)
c. Pistis (Belief/Convention) : emotional intelligence, capable of consensus.
Psyche: Being streetwise, knowing the game but not inhabited by Beauty
3- The Sophist : the epistemological growth explained but centered on the distinction between the third stage and the fourth stage. The third stage is called the psyche (the inchoate soul), or the Sophist’s stage aka: the fake timocratic man’s stage. Confucius called the Sophist “the Magician”. I cannot resist mentioning the Wizard of Oz. This dialogue is also about how to ascend to the fourth stage, the stage of the true timocratic man motivated by a sense of Justice. This is the first station of the Timeless Reality corresponding to the Timeless Form of Beauty, its associated Cardinal Virtue is Justice.
4- The Statesman : the fifth stage corresponding to the Timeless Form of Goodness.
That is the station of the aristocratic man, endowed with creativity, inventiveness, bold
imagination, discovery and playful exploration : those qualities represent one of the
four Cardinal Virtues and are subsumed with one word, Valor; which is far to be only
limited to physical courage or prowess. The other Cardinal Virtue associated with
The Timeless Form of Goodness is Humanity or Moderation.
5– Crito: The last 3 dialogues of the septuor are devoted to the ultimate Timeless Form of
Truth, corresponding to the Cardinal Virtue of Wisdom. As a man, Crito was, in many ways,
the existential & ontological perfect opposite of Socrates. Plato was also a playwright and
he knew how to captivate the attention of his audience.
6- Apology of Socrates features the eternal Philosopher King having to explain himself to the mob. A heart-wrenching cosmic drama but paradoxically uplifting at the same time.
7- The Phaedo
In this last dialogue, Socrates gave to everyone the dazzling secret- or better worded- the dazzling arcane because it is an open secret for those willing of making the effort to learn : something in us stays unwaveringly the same notwithstanding the bodily, intellectual and emotional changes we experience through our lives. Before leaving, Socrates kindly offered his ultimate advice for all of us : Take care of your Self.
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** Zhu Xi (1130-1200) having also upheld the inseparability of true Knowledge & Action. The exact expression Zhu Xi used was : Knowledge & Action are the indivisible components of truly intelligent activity.
He also offered this dazzling recommendation : 格 物 致 知 : Ge2 Wu4 Zhi4 Zhi1
“Explore exhaustively the phenomena for reaching to the comprehensive understanding of reality and achieving true knowledge.”
His Deer Grotto Academy (Jiangxi Province) lasted 7 centuries (1185-1898)
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Zhu Xi insisted more on the general epistemological growth, meaning a focus on the Four Books rather than the Five Classics, the direct cultural legacy of the Zhou dynasty. It doesn’t mean that the Five Classics were neglected.
** Lyndon Larouche Jr (1922-2019)
American economist and philosopher, a man for all seasons and having created a multi-faceted work, I just want to limit myself to 2 of his declarations :
••• Genius can be taught.
I paraphrase by : The Complete Man is the union of Timelessness & Time.
That integration is possible by achieving existentially the
undying teachings of a Classical Education.
••• Substance is Effective Cause & Effective Cause is Substance
Perfect verbal synthesis on the interaction of Being & Becoming.
This exploration into the education of the aristocratic man will be continued next week.
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