warmly welcome to this uplifting blog,
The news entitled, Confucius blamed for 'Ugly' side
attracted my immediate attention and action that caused me to investigate
further. After reading it, I realised that the teacher, Mr Woon Swee Tin was
charged on Jan 5, 1981 for giving a false picture of Confucius. I do not know
the outcome of this case. Appreciate if someone could come forward to share
with us its outcome.
I must admit that I do not know his real reason behind for
putting all the blames to our well respected Grand Teacher whose status is
viewed by the Chinese communities as on par with Jesus in the Western World.
His teachings have great impacts on millions of people from all walks
of life. His wisdom is highly regarded and respected even till now and
in future which I strongly believe so.
It is nothing new to me to see that the 'ugly" side
was put up by the above such well-known infamous Chinese Author at that time
for reasons best known to him. His inaccurate and inappropriate personal view
of blaming Confucius for causing Chinese to be not innovative, excessively self
centred, greedy, cowardly and insensitive to other peoples' sufferings is
unfounded if you view the contents in totality, and not out of context. This is
the exactly the method done by Pharisees to Jesus that caused his own
people to prosecute Jesus, who is sinless and did nothing wrong and yet was
found guilty under their own Law, contradictory with Rome's law at that time.
Check the Scripture yourself on this.
If Mr Woon is right, then ask yourself why Confucius'
followers were prosecuted by the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, for upholding the
truth, contradictory to Mr Woon's claims that they are greedy, cowardly, and
insensitive to others. This group of scholars could shift camps, as usual, and
work with the Emperor to depress his own people further to accomplish the
emperor's will and receive higher personal rewards from the Emperor. Such an
act is very much easier to do when compared to the former act. Similarly this
was what the Apostle had done after he was touched by the Lord.
As such, there is no surprise to me as the strategy is
still widely used and applied by Judas much earlier when he saw Mary pouring
perfume over Jesus'. We were told that Judas who voice out his "Noble"
view of using the proceeds to help the poor, was a cover up for his real
intention to pocket the money from the proceeds arising from the sales of
perfumes. I pointed out this so called "smart act" here so that we
all can see the entire whole picture and give a fair assessment to it; and not
tarnishing REAL GOOD REPUTATION of these wise people, who leave behind such a
rich legacy for our good.
This deceiving acts are very dangerous and it should be
stopped immediately especially for those who have an influence, like Mr Woon.
However, I hope that he could able to see the whole picture by now and had
apologize to Confucius personally, if he is still living.
For those who know Confucius well enough, you will agree
with me that he always advocates the importance of humility and was always open
to learn from everyone, even if their social status is lower than him. I just
totally can't apprehend how a person can learn if he closes his mind. Here, he
advocates on innovation and applied knowledge in line with his famous
quotation- I see I forget; I read I remember and I do I understand. He stress
on the importance of the true understanding before you can apply it usefully
for the betterment of the society. Here, you need to be innovative and creative
to make the society progress forward.
He teaches the people to give respect to elders and loyalty
to family so as to preserve order and harmony in the family before the society.
He believes a family represents a small unit of the country. Similarly, the
individual is a small unit in a family. As such, we must appreciate him for
highlighting to us the importance of this value which begins from a family
before it can be carried out at on a country level. His views should be
respected and we should never put our words into his mouth and blame him. I
disagree that a responsible person will do that.
Consistency is the key to determine the truth. How can we
misconstrue his good intention of advocating the importance of having peace and
harmony in any given society than having wars for many hundred years during his
times. How can a person who advocates "self-centeredness and
greediness" be staying focus on the welfare of his own people, totally
contradictory with Mr Woon's view?
By now, the other claims put up by Mr Woon who claimed that
pursuit of wealth is the priority from Confucius' code of ethics is
totally unacceptable. Should this accusation be true, then he wouldn't travel
to every part of his country to spread his teaching of good values. On the
other hand, he would use his talents and skills to serve the emperor to enrich
himself.
In fact, he risked his own life to express his opinion and
teaching throughout China
and make people realise about the importance of peace and harmony in the
society. Being humble and advocating life long learning to make ourselves
progress before we could contribute to our country more mightily is solid and
sound principle. Another crystal clear illustration to Confucius' argument is
widely used in aviation industry where the air stewards remind the passenger to
put the oxygen mask to themselves before their children in an emergency. On the
surface, it can be argued that the act is self- centred. But if you
think deeply you will understand the rationale. Now, I hope you see the
REAL BIG picture. You may be right in a narrow context, but to put Confucius
wrong is not very wise. Therefore, to blame Confucius is an easy and convenient
way to disrespect him. That is not fair to him because he has not been given a
chance to speak for himself.
However, the blaming culture adopted by Mr Woon is not
something new to me as it has become the world phenomenon and is dangerous and
ought to be stopped from spreading further. On other hand, we should hold
ourselves accountable to ourselves, and not blame those wise people who lived
in the world more than 2,500 years ago. In his time, he was not so widely
exposed to the powerful tools that we have now such as internet, radio, books ,
Ebook and TV. Be mindful and grateful that his knowledge and wisdom help us
achieve what we have today. Don't get me wrong, that our entire achievement
belong to him wholly, but only to a certain extent due to his sowing and
efforts in preserving his teaching for our good.
Please do not blame him for "imperfectness", but
give him the due respect, he honorably deserved. If you still can't do that,
then my effort is in vain. Perhaps my arguments are not powerful enough to
convince and convict you to him, I would say then. But at least I have tried my
best to defend this hero of mine since my childhood time. Here, I write to
appeal to others to step forward to voice out and defend this Honorable master
who has gone, but his teaching still remains with us and we should appreciate
what he has done for us, and not blame him for our shortcomings, due to our own
destructive actions.
Thanks for your time and efforts to read this article and
if you find it useful, please spread the good news to others so that we
together can put Confucius' teaching in the right and appropriate manner he deserved.
James Oh
Skype me at james.oh18
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