Confucius: The Essential Analects, Books 4-6

These Books are basically divided into two parts: where Confucius discusses his ideals and the Way of Good, and examples of good and bad people.

Here are some quotations I liked:

"The Master said, 'People are true to type with regard to what sort of mistakes they make. Observe closely the sort of mistakes a person makes-then you will know his character.'"

The literal meaning of this would be that if someone breaks his back because he tripped over the stairs when he was trying to throw his friend a birthday party, you should like him. If someone breaks his back trying to get into his least favorite teacher's house so that he can murder her, you should probably stay away from that kid.

However, I think that it means you should look at why people make mistakes. If someone gets a bad grade because he was lazy, then that person is not Good. However, if someone burns to death in his house because his father told him not to go out, and he was being filial, that's good.

"The Master said, 'People in ancient times were not eager to speak, because they would be ashamed if their actions did not measure up their words.'"

Which means, "Practice what you preach."

I agree with this statement. I hate it when people go on and on about how doing this is bad, then they proceed to do it themselves. It's hypocrisy. A good example of that would be the old Jacobean priests, such as Andrewes. When the Black Plague hit England, he went on and on about how you wouldn't get sick of you were good, because God wouldn't punish you, and so Andrewes wasn't afraid. However, as soon as the disease hit his parish he left town, the imprisoned someone who'd dared to comment upon that fact. He had said something, but behaved in a contradictory way. All those other priests, too, preached the word of God and said that corruption and sin is bad, and you should live a spare life, yet they took bribes and engaged in adultery and had tons of luxuries. They, quite literally, did not practice what they preached.

There are a couple of stories that basically go this way:

Zhoug: Is [insert name] Good?
Master: I dunno.
Zhoug: He did [insert good deed] and [insert good deed]?
Master: He is pure, but I have no clue of he's Good. Why does he deserve to be good?

So how does he judge who's Good and who's not? Does he base what he thinks upon his everyday life, not just a couple of Good deeds?

He also stresses the importance of being a gentleman ("The Master said to Zixia, 'Be a gentlemanly ru. Do not be a petty ru.'" 6.13). A gentleman is someone who follows the Way of being Good, which is to do certain things, the biggest example being Be a Good Son. He actually writes down a set of rules for sons (4.18-4.21).

He also says there's a difference between being wise and being Good.

"Fan Chi asked about wisdom.
The Master said, 'Working to ensure social harmony among the common people, respecting the ghosts and spirits while keeping them at a difference-this might be called wisdom.'
He then asked about Goodness.
The Master said, 'One who is Good sees as his first priorities the hardship of self-cultivation, and only after thinks about results or rewards. Yes, this is what we might call Goodness.'" (6:22)

But if you think about it, it's the same thing. Being wise is trying to improve a place, and therefor the people in that place, so that everyone is more respectful and lives better lives. Being Good is improving yourself (and what does he mean, "Only after thinks about results and rewards"? If you're working to improve yourself, then you're doing so with the plan of the result being that you'll be a better person. And while this is a very noble cause, you're still, in a way, thinking of the results when you're doing it), so that you'll be a better person by the end, and thus will improve society. Being wise is just doing that on a larger scale, so I would argue the wisdom is better than Goodness, because it is less self-centered. You don't just improve yourself then say, "Oh, I'm done. There is nothing else I can do." Whereas being wise is saying, "Well, I'm done with myself. But that's not enough; I need to work on other people as well." Or maybe being wise is just being nosy, and that's not Good.