Chapter 22 4. Destiny and mission

Mozi talked about ghosts and gods, and Confucius talked about the destiny. Confucius said—— If you don't know your fate, you can't think of yourself as a gentleman. He also said— There is life and death, and wealth is in the sky. The first sentence is directly spoken, and the latter sentence is Zi Xia's paraphrase. As for ghosts and gods, Confucius' attitude is "respect ghosts and gods and keep them at a distance."It is actually unbelief to leave it alone. This is different from Mozi, so Mozi wants to question Confucius. Mozi said that the theory of Mandate of Heaven is the opinion of tyrants and idlers.Because the tyrant is down and the lazy man is poor, he will not think that there is something wrong with him, he will only say that his fate is bad, and blame all the faults on God.

That's why Mozi said that if you agree with the Mandate of Heaven theory, it must be that the rulers "don't listen to the rule", the people "don't engage in it", and everyone is passive and sabotage. This is "enough to ruin the world" and must be criticized. In fact, this is a distortion, or a misunderstanding. As I said before, Confucius "knew what was impossible and did it".Knowing that it is impossible to do it, how can you be passive and sabotage? of course not. So, why did Confucius talk about the Mandate of Heaven? For the mission.

When traveling around the world, Confucius was once trapped in Kuang (suspected to be in Changyuan County, Henan Province).Confucius said, whether we are in danger or not depends on the destiny.If the fate is in my hands, Kuang people can't do anything to me. So, is destiny with him? exist. Confucius' logic is: King Wen passed away, isn't civilization still there?It can be seen that God does not intend to let it die.What's more, if God doesn't want this civilization anymore, why would he let me master it? Later, Confucius really escaped danger. Confucius once said something similar.It was also when he was traveling around the world that Confucius went to Song State, and Sima Huanyu (read Rupi) of Song State wanted to murder him.Confucius said: "I was born with the mission of Confucius, what can Huanji do to me?"

Obviously, destiny is destiny. Therefore, Confucius, who advocated the theory of destiny, had a sense of mission.His mission, first of all, is to inherit and continue the Chinese civilization, and to carry it forward.The second is to rectify the disadvantages of the times and rule the world. In the first mission, Confucius undoubtedly succeeded.The second type is very sorry. It can be said that it hits a wall everywhere and achieves nothing. This requires explanation, comfort, and an explanation. How to explain?How to comfort?What do you say? fate. One year, a man named Gong Boliao slandered Zilu and betrayed Confucius to Dr. Jisun, who was in charge of the state of Lu.Some people were aggrieved and said that he could let Gongbo Liao's corpse be thrown on the street.Confucius said: Can my proposition be realized?Resign yourself to fate.Is my claim unrealizable?Also resigned to fate.

Therefore, murdering Gongbo Liao is meaningless. This is called "Whether the Tao will go or not (欤)? Fate. How will the Tao be abolished? Fate", which is also a part of the theory of destiny. So, is this fatalism? no. Destiny is a mission, not a destiny. It is a mission, and there is no turning back.If you have no illusions about the results, you will be even more resolute.In fact, it is impossible for a person to do everything in his life, and it is impossible to do nothing. He always does something and does not do it.The question is simply: what to do and what not to do. There are two options here.

One is to choose what can be done, and the other is to choose what should be done. To choose what can be done depends on the results and the pros and cons.If it is beneficial, if it can succeed, then do it; if it is not beneficial, if it will fail, then do not do it.The choice of what to do depends on the process and morality.As long as it is morality, do it without hesitation, do it wholeheartedly, and do it with all your heart.As for success or failure, that is God's business.This is Confucius' "resignation to fate". It can be seen that resigning to fate does not mean not working hard, let alone being irresponsible. It just doesn't care about the harvest, but only about hard work; it doesn't pay attention to the result, but only to the process.In fact, although Confucianism advocates "doing something", it does not advocate "seeking".They are "doing without seeking".Therefore, they have no illusions and go with the flow.

In fact, if you can really live with the situation, it doesn't matter if you die or not.What I am afraid of is "uneasy when encountering", so we must talk about the destiny-if you have a destiny, you don't refuse; if you don't, you don't care.What to do, what else to do.What to do, what to do. In short, it is up to God to make things happen, and it is up to people to plan things. This is another attitude towards life. According to this attitude, doing righteousness is a duty and a responsibility.As for whether the ideas can be implemented, whether the doctrine can be promoted, and whether the ideal can be realized, it can only be left to God.Even if you ask for something, just ask for a clear conscience.

Yes, don't ask for what you want, but ask for peace of mind. This is different from Mozi again.As I said before, Mozi, like Han Fei, is both utilitarian and practical.In Mozi's view, if you want to do something, you must succeed.If it doesn't work, why do you do it? But what if you can't succeed? Ask ghosts and gods to help. Therefore, Mozi handed over the results to the ghosts, and Confucius handed over the destiny to heaven.Therefore, one of them talked about the destiny, and the other talked about ghosts and gods. So, who is right? Zhuangzi said, neither is right.

---

Notes: