Chapter 15 Section 15: The perception of honor

In other words, religion uses the law of keeping our human beings to tell us that we must obey the right laws of our people, not the laws of animals or our flesh, what St. Paul called the law of the mind of the flesh, the famous disciple Augustus Mr. Comte and Mr. Little gave a good definition of this: the law of self-preservation and reproduction; and the real law of our people is what St. Paul called the law of the spirit and the law of the gentleman defined by Confucius.In short, this true law of our beings, which religion tells us to obey, is what Christ called the kingdom of our hearts.Thus we see that, as Confucius said, religion is the refined, spiritualized, ordered moral law, a higher and deeper standard than the moral law of the philosophers and moralists.Therefore, Christ said: "Unless your justice (or morality) exceeds that of the Rabbi and Pharisee (that is, the philosopher and moralist), you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Like religion, Confucius' Law of the Gentleman is a refined, orderly moral law—a deeper and higher standard of moral law than that of philosophers and moralists.The moral law of philosophers and moralists tells us that we must abide by our human moral law, which philosophers call reason and moralists call conscience.But, like religion, Confucius' Law of the Gentleman tells us that we must obey the law of the real man, not the law of the common man or the vulgar man in the street, but what Emerson called "the most straightforward and simple law" in the world. the law of the soul "of man.In fact, what is the law of the man in order to understand the gentleman?We must first be gentlemen, in Emerson's words, with a gentleman's frankness and simplicity of heart developed in himself.Therefore, Confucius said: "People can promote the Tao, but the Tao cannot promote people."

However, Confucius said that as long as we study and try to acquire the delicate feelings or tastes of a gentleman, we can know what the law of a gentleman is.In the teachings of Confucius, the Chinese word for taste is li, which was once translated into etiquette, etiquette and politeness. In fact, this word means taste.Taste, the delicate sentiments and good taste of a gentleman, when applied to moral conduct, is, in the European language, a sense of honor.In fact, Confucius' law of the gentleman is nothing but a sense of honor.This sense of honor, which Confucius called the law of the gentleman, is not the moral law of philosophers and moralists. It is a blunt, rigid formal or formulaic knowledge of right and wrong, and is similar to the moral law in the Christian Bible. Justice, a perception of the innate, lifelike, vivid right and wrong, or the ambiguous absolute essence of justice, the life and soul of justice, is also called the perception of honor.

Now, we can answer this question: How did the man and woman who first realized the relationship between husband and wife realize that secret, Goethe's secret, Confucius' law of the gentleman?Men and women discover this secret because they have the delicate feelings and good taste of a gentleman, which is a sense of honor when applied to moral behavior, which makes them see the ambiguous absolute essence of right and wrong or justice, that is, the life and soul of justice That is honor.What, then, gives and excites such delicate sentiments, good taste, or honor, in men and women, that they see the soul of justice as honor?This beautiful quote from Joubert explains it."A man cannot really do justice to his neighbor unless he loves him," said Jubert. (Leshomesnosontjustesquenversceuxquilsaiment) So let men and women see what Jubert calls true justice, the soul of justice is honor, and let them discover the secret -- what Goethe called the open secret, Confucius' law of the gentleman -- The inspiration of love is love--love between man and woman, that is to say, that gave rise to the law of the gentleman; the secret, because of which man has founded not only society and civilization, but also religion--to discover God.You will now understand Goethe's faithful confession in the mouth of Faust (28), which begins:

Is it not the roof of heaven?Isn't there solid earth below? Now, I'm going to tell you that it is not the belief in God taught by religion that makes people obey the rules of moral behavior.It is the law of the gentleman that religion appeals to—the kingdom of heaven within us—that makes one obey the rules of moral conduct.Therefore the law of the gentleman is the true religious life, and the belief in God and the moral code of conduct taught by religion are, so to speak, nothing but forms of religion.However, if the life of religion is the law of gentlemen, then the soul of religion, the source of religious revelation - is love.Love does not only refer to the love between a man and a woman, which is the first love that human beings understand.Love includes all real human feelings, the feelings between parents and children and affection for all life and kindness, sympathy, pity, kindness; in fact, all real human feelings are included in the Chinese character ren, if the closest In the old European language of Christianity, it is divinity, because this is the most god-like quality of human beings. In modern terms, it is humanity, human love, or to express it in one word, love.In short, the soul of religion, the source of enlightenment of religion is the Chinese character benevolence, love - you can call it any name - first appeared in the world as love between men and women.This, then, is the revelation of religion, the supreme virtue of religion, on which, as I have said, religion primarily relies to enable man, the mass of mankind, to obey the codes or moral laws of moral conduct that form part of the divine order of the universe.Confucius said: "The way of a gentleman is to create a couple; and to reach it, to observe the heaven and the earth." (z-82)