Expert: Maciej St. Ziêba - 9/14/2009

Question
What does he mean when he says "A gentleman can see a question from all sides without bias. The small man is biased and can see a question only from one side.



or



A gentleman takes as much trouble to discover what is right as lesser men take to discover what will pay


Answer
Dear Carmen,

If you read both quotations very carefully you will find yourself the answer. Confucius distinguishes between two classes of men: "gentlemen" (or "noble men" - Chinese junzi) and "petty men" (or "small men", or "lesser men" - Chinese xiaoren).

[NB. - do not take the word "classes" to mean the Marxist sense, or anything similar that has to do with the occupation, job, source of employment (economical-political-sociological meaning, like European medieval states) nor else with inheritance, birth, belonging to a clan, (genealogical-sociological meaning, like Indian castes).]

Gentlemen are those for whom the virtues and the knowledge (learning, culture) form the basic the basic guidance in life and the goal of actions.

Small men are those for whom the emotions and the profit form the basic guidance in life and the goal of actions.


Therefore gentlemen try every effort to understand the things (the situations) in depth and to discover what is the right thing to do in a given situation - and next follow that line of action, even if it does not pay (if it gives no profit). This is called the virtue. The basic virtues are humanity (love for others, compassion; especially the love to one's superiors or parents [filial piety], love to one's inferior or children, love to one's ), justice (being just - avoiding evil and following the good), rituality (following the customs of the cultural society, performing the rites and following the etiquette, knowing one's place within the hierarchy of the society, being humble and not overtly proud), loyalty (to one's superiors - especially to one's parents and elderly - as well as to one's own virtue) and wisdom (knowing how to distinguish good from evil, true from false, right from unfit etc.). Being a gentlement means being a cultivated person, honorable, virtuous, etc.

The petty men do not care for knowledge and virtues. They care only for fulfillment of their wishes, for giving satsfaction to theis senses ("emotions"), fo gaining material wealth ("profit") etc.

Best regards

Maciej