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What is A Refutation of Juan K'an's Essay—Residence is Devoid of Good and Bad Fortune: You Must Rather Preserve Your Life: (Nan Chai wu chi-hsiung she-sheng lun) about?

The spirits of Heaven and Earth are far away and distant, and good and bad fortune are difficult to understand. Even though men of mediocre abilities might exhaust their resources, none would understand the principles involved, and it is easy by this to become confused about the Way. Therefore the Master [Confucius] stopped answering when questioned about the end; he was cautious about spirits and prodigies and about them did not speak. 1 And this is why the ancients displayed their benevo lence to others but kept how it works to themselves. 2 They knew these things could not be shared with the masses. It is not that they intentionally concealed them; these are things they would not understand. I have no interest in discussing such matters. But you, with your opinionated mind and shallow views, are certain and have no doubts. To be so definite as this is enough to be considered 1 Following the Wu text in omitting the $. in (Lu Hsun mistakenly leaves it in). Hsi K'ang has in mind two passages in the Analects. Analects 11:12 (p. 20) reads: "Chi-lu [Tzu-lu] asked how the spirits of the dead and the gods should be served. The Master said, 'You are not able even to serve man. How can yo

Author

Hsi K'ang

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published

1983

Language

EN