Episode 5: Cultivation and the Autobiography of Confucius

This Is The Way: Chinese Philosophy Podcast

In this episode we discuss Confucius's autobiography as found in Analects 2.4, one of the most famous passages in the Analects and a rich resource for reflection on the process of moral self-cultivation. Among the many topics we explore: what Confucius meant by being "free of doubts" and "understanding Heaven's Mandate," and the relationship between practicing and understanding the Confucian Way. We discuss how traditional commentaries and commentators have interpreted some of the most interesting and disputed lines, and puzzle over the philosophical concept of 'wholeheartedness.'
We primarily use Edward Slingerland's Hackett translation of the Analects for our conversation.
For our next episode we will be inviting Tao JIANG as our guest to discuss partialism and impartialism in classical Chinese philosophy.
Want to continue the discussion? Need links to some of the sources mentioned? Go to the support page for this episode on Warp, Weft, and Way.
We thank Lena Li (LI La 李拉 ) for her expert editing and sound engineering. We also thank the blog Warp, Weft & Way for hosting the discussion for this episode.
Co-hosts:
Richard Kim's website
Justin Tiwald's website

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1. Part I -- Introduction (00:00:00)

2. • Preface to today's topic and passage (00:06:03)

3. Part II -- Cultivation and the autobiography of Confucius (00:10:25)

4. • Richard sets the stage for the spiritual autobiography (00:10:26)

5. • Justin reads the spiritual autobiography and breaks it down into three stages (00:12:26)

6. • "At 15, I set my heart-mind on learning" -- "learning" (xue 學) and ritual (00:17:48)

7. • "At 30, I stood straight" (li 立) (00:25:38)

8. • "At 40, I became free of doubts," and some discussion of Mencius vs. Xunzi on cultivating ethical virtue (00:27:29)

9. • "At 50, I understood Heaven's Mandate" (00:50:25)

10. • "At 60, my ear was compliant" (ershun 耳順) (01:00:57)

11. • "At 70, I could follow my heart-mind's desires without overstepping the bounds" (01:06:43)

12. • Is it significant that Confucius singles out the desires of the heart or heart-mind (as opposed to desires of the mouth, eyes, etc.)? (01:10:57)

13. • One takeaway from the passage a whole: interest in different degrees and types of epistemic achievement (01:14:40)

14. • Another takeaway: the priority of ethical cultivation over other religious and philosophical aims (01:18:49)

15. • Preview of the next episode: partiality and impartiality in early Chinese philosophy (01:27:22)