Wednesday, September 17, 2014

如斯好德如好色的人

The English translation of the subtitle does not quite do it justice ("Because I have not yet seen anyone who puts principles before licentiousness", Chinese: 微臣從沒見過 如斯好德如好色的人), but you get the drift.

The gravitas of the moment comes off best in the narration by Meher McArthur in his little book about the sage, "Confucius".

Confucius (a.k.a. 孔子 Kǒng Zǐ, literally "Master Kong") had received an invite from the wife of the Duke of Wei, a woman of questionable character. Nanzi was notorious for her sexual intrigues and immoral behaviour. A foreign talent from the neighbouring state of Song, she had been having an incestuous relationship with her brother before marrying the Duke. Confucius could not refuse for fear of offending his powerful host; he was looking forward to finding satisfactory employment in the Wei government.
"Shortly after his first visit, Duke Ling invited him to join him and his wife in some sort of procession that may actually have been held in Confucius' honour. Apparently , the Duke and his wife rode in the first carriage, with Confucius and Nanzi's eunuch escort in the carriage behind them. The people of Wei saw the incongruity of this display and shouted out, "Lust in the front; virtue behind!" (pages 128,129)

Confucius was deeply embarrassed, and made the very cynical observation, "I have not seen one who loves virtue as he loves beauty." Following, Confucius gathered his followers and left Wei in disgust.

Such is the state of affairs in the current governance. There's no beauty in a birthday bash for 50 or 91 years, when the needy senior citizens are robbed of access to their own life savings when they reach age 55.

12 comments:

  1. Nanzi's "flaw" is a personal weakness, it is debatable whether she screwed around at the masses' expense. The 'system' here is a totally open, legally-engineered mass collusion amongst the elites to rob the masses and self-enrich. Of course they play within the rules of the western elites like bankers and powerful vested business interests, so on paper and in their own minds, they are above board and takes the moral high ground.

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    Replies
    1. Am taken aback by the use of " moral high ground". Sorry, that was probably still valid for those within the ruling party decades ago. Now ? I say, it is stretching imagination. Just my opinion.

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    2. You mean high horses instead of high ground???

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  2. Luckily this year they didn't use the parliament for his birthday bash. That is the only time he attended parliament. He almost thought he is the king of Singapore and everyone including the opposition MPs have to kowtow to him.

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    Replies
    1. The evil that men do lives after them. And what does it profit a man if he gains this red dot but suffers the loss of his own soul?

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  3. Pity the poor suckers.

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  4. I wonder who are the unnamed women in the photo of his birthday published in today's papers.
    Are they the new women in his life?

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    Replies
    1. Mao was known to request young females to be in his company for "rejuvenating health " reasons.

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    2. Maybe that's what papa had in mind when he wrote 'Hard Truth'. Most would say; only in his dream (wet wet wet).

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