Chapter 59 body is not private

People are always going to die, and parting from life is the saddest thing in life.When Yan Yuan, Confucius' favorite student, passed away, Confucius cried very sadly, thinking that God wanted his life!Therefore, cherishing life and treating death kindly has become a problem that philosophers must face.Here, the pain left by the dead to the living is on the one hand, and on the other hand, or more importantly, how to accept the fact of death with a stable attitude in the face of death.Filial piety plays a very important role here. What did Zeng Zi, who was famous for his filial piety, think of when he was dying?He thought of his own life, which was given by his parents.Therefore, even though he has no power to control his body, he still asks his disciples to help him "open his hands and feet", look at his hands and feet, and feel that he can leave with a clear conscience after seeing that they are intact. .Zeng Zi respectfully practiced filial piety all his life, and strived to be perfect in virtue. His behavior was just like the words he quoted, "trembling, as if facing an abyss, as if walking on thin ice".After he was convinced that he could give his whole body back to his parents, he could finally say, "From now on, I will save my husband", and he would be free from any harm from now on.

Zeng Zi’s feeling of relief when facing death stems from his deep understanding of Confucius’ filial piety education.Returning with the whole body is itself a requirement of filial piety. The "Book of Filial Piety" says: "The body is hair and skin, and the parents who receive it do not dare to damage it. This is the beginning of filial piety." As a parent, it is the most painful thing for a child to be injured and disabled. Therefore, as a filial son, he should do The minimum requirement is not to make parents sad.Whether the body is preserved or not has actually become a touchstone of filial piety. This may be said to be the Confucian version of the whole body preservation theory.After the death of Zeng Zi, his student Yue Zheng Zichun sprained his foot when he came to class. After recovering from the injury, he did not go out for several months. His face was worried. The disciples asked him why, and he replied: "I heard about Confucius's work from Zeng Zi. Teaching, that is: Parents give me a complete body, I must return this complete body to my parents. This can only be called filial piety. As a gentleman, I forgot filial piety within a few steps , so I feel sad." ("Book of Rites·Jieyi") The lesson drawn from this passage is that my body is not my own, it is the "inheritance" of my parents.