Zhuangzi said to Huizi,
“When Confucius was in his sixtieth year
he changed his views.
What he previously held to be true
he now regards as false.
We do not know whether what he now holds to be true
is not what he regarded to be false
for fifty-nine years.”

Huizi replied, “Confucius is earnest
in his pursuit of learning and acts accordingly.”

Zhuangzi said, ”Confucius has recanted but
he has not spoken about it. He said, ‘Man receives his capacities
from the great Source of his being
and ought to reinvigorate them in his life.’
He sings in accord with the tones,
and his discourse complies with the rules.
regarding profit and righteousness
and his preferences and aversions,
his approvals and objections
only regulate the external acknowledgement
of his views among men,
nothing more.

To find acknowledgement in the hearts of men
so that they do not become disagreeable
and to bring all under heaven into order
–ah! I have not achieved this.”

Zhuangzi trans. by Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Book 27 Metaphorical Language.

Winter assaults with freezing rain, snow and wind. And the roads are hazardous. “A final kick in the teeth” as a friend aptly said this morning. But spring and settled pleasant days surely are in store. Soon…

“Change.” ‘Making one’s peace’ with the given of change is important and difficult. This brief exchange between sage Zhuangzi and his friend Huizi captures this common quandary. There’s no evidence that in real life Confucius ever changed his views but the facts are no impediment to crafting a good story.

How does a scholar make a 180 degree u-turn when he/she is sixty years of age, to advocate an entirely different set of ideas?* Zhuangzi finds this radical reversal hard to take on its face. He asks whether Confucius was entertaining these different ideas all along…

Huizi says there is no doubt Confucius is manifestly sincere.

To which Zhuangzi replies: Perhaps, but – he [Confucius] has never commented about his change of mind. Zhuangzi then quotes Confucius and I paraphrase: Mankind has access to a Source for his/her faculties of understanding throughout the span of life. But have we invigorated ourselves… Implied even if not clearly stated is the critique that Confucius does not seem to have done so for himself.

With spare warning, then comes a razor-edged criticism of Confucianism. You can even detect the sarcasm. Confucius ‘sings a song’ that orders society only on the surface, in the most superficial way. Rules and rituals about this that and the other, which touch mere conventional opinion, unable to capture the mind-heart of a people. The Source remains untapped!

I reflect to myself this precise indictment could be served upon Christianity, both Evangelical and Catholic sects. We Americans are bereft of any basis for respectfully accommodating our differences. 

Humankind, all of us, come from what we have designated ‘nature’. From our beginnings we have moved about this planet as circumstances have constrained us. Immigration, movement is our legacy. Shall we lay aside the absurd pettifog over the illegals living among us, mowing our grass, and serving our meals?

Let us confess that we are all mortal, furthermore no one “deserves” his/her happenstance of birth… 

Who will be first to say out loud, in the name of heaven and earth – how can we treat others so shabbily? Enough! Shall we grow up together !? What advantage to bomb the cities of Iran into smoking ruin, the starving living with the rubble? Or reducing Palestinians to a stateless shadow-people? What advantage when violence has never served as exchange currency for extension of life? No buy-back whatsoever sidesteps a certain departure. 

Like Zhuangzi we have failed so far to press home this point. Notwithstanding there is no one but us “to bring all under heaven into order”.

Perhaps this song will help. No effort is wasted don’t you think? Put A Little Love In Your Heart by Annie Lennox & Al Green.