Zi said: "Those who know are happy with water, and those who are benevolent are happy with mountains;."Those who know move, and those who are benevolent are quiet;Those who know are happy, and those who are benevolent are long. This sentence is from "Yongye Chapter".
The word "music" in the sentence is usually interpreted as "like", "love", and "yearning", which is correct, but it seems that it has not been able to express the original meaning of Confucius very well. Because Confucius said "Leshui" and "Leshan" more contain the meaning of taking them as models, it seems more appropriate to interpret "music" with "imitation".
Let's look at the explanations of "Leshui" and "Leshan" in "Han Poems".
The water man, the reason to act, do not leave a small room, as if there is a wise man, moving down;Those who seem to be polite do not doubt it;There seems to be a brave man, who is clear of defense;Those who seem to know their fate will go far in adventure;It seems that there are virtuous people, heaven and earth are sensitive, things are alive, the country is peaceful, and everything is peaceful. This wise man is so happy with the water. ”
The mountain, where thousands of people look up, the grass and trees are growing, all things are colonized, the birds are gathered, and the beasts are ambushed. Give birth to all things without selfishness, nurture the group without tirelessness, Izumo guides the wind, heaven and earth with a sense, the country with peace, and a husband and a man with lofty ideals. This benevolent person is also Leshan. ”
Obviously, "The Biography of Han Poems" also tends to take the word "music" as the meaning of imitation.
If so, the translation of this chapter into modern Chinese is: Confucius said that the wise imitate the flowing water, and the virtuous imitate the high mountains;A wise man likes to be smart, and a virtuous man likes to be calmThe wise are happy, and the virtuous live long.
Mountains and rivers have been a realm that people yearn for since ancient times. The literati yearn for their tranquility and seclusion, while the frustrated use them to hide their emptiness.
However, in the view of Confucianism, the grandeur of the mountain and the agility of the water are used to convey yearning and pursuit.
In Confucianism, benevolence is the most ideal, the most perfect and the highest moral standard, benevolence must have the character and mind of "virtue and virtue", with its profound virtue to educate people and things, it must be as thick and solid as Chongshan, so as not to be threatened by snobbery.
It is precisely because of the benevolence of the moral and resolute character that they are more likely to take the calm mountain as an example, so they can treat life with a brave bearing, "the upper is worthy of the sky, and the lower is not inferior to the people" ("Mencius"), it is precisely because of such a bearing that there is no need to worry about it. Confucius said that "the benevolent are not worried", which is what he meant.
Think about it, that magnificent mountain, how much wind, frost, rain and snow have gone through, there will not be any worries.
The wise man is a wise man, his temperament is smart, and naturally, they imitate the smart flowing water more;Flowing water is ever-changing, ever-changing. It symbolizes the intelligent and agile characteristics of the wise, so Confucius said that "the wise man is not confused".
This is not a radical separation of what the wise and the benevolent aspire to, what they pursue, and what they obtain. Confucius just wanted to show that although the wise and the benevolent have the same side, they also have their own advantages and more prominent points.
Because the benevolent person has a noble character, he always gives people a solemn, thick feeling, people will look up to the mountains, will get a stable, down-to-earth feeling of reliance from the mountains, we often say that the virtue is this meaning, so the benevolent Leshan.
The wise man yearns for flow, which gives people sensitivity and a sense of changeThe benevolent person gives people a sense of virtue and stability. Therefore, the wise man is happy, because he realizes all kinds of ways from the flow of changes, and the benevolent man has become a model for people from generation to generation because of his generosity, so he has to live for a long time.