Translation - Analects of Confucius 2.2 There are 300 Odes.

子曰：「詩三百，一言以蔽之，曰『思無邪』。」 Zǐ yuē: Shī sān bǎi, yī yǎn yǐ bì zhī, yuē "sī wú xié."

The master said: There are three hundred Odes, but one sentence may cover them all: "Think not (what is) wicked!"

Notes: this is another good example for the central role of moral psychology in classical Chinese thought, and a particularly good example on the relationship between self-cultivation and understanding in the analects. Confucius never intends the rituals to be performed for their own sake [1]; Confucius, in fact, explicitly criticizes those who merely memorize official documents [2] or practice from rote memory without understanding the circumstances or who practice ritual without an eye toward benevolence [3]. In fact, benevolence in general is the goal for Confucius: this requires both understanding the rituals and the circumstances, but surpasses merely correctly applying ritual to circumstances. The application of ritual may be beneficial, but is by itself insufficient. 

In this sense, the Odes may provide guidelines for action, but they also help the sage engage in the kinds of emotional imagination and activity necessary for beginning to understand emotional interactions with others.

Confucius' instruction here particularly points to the concern with habit, and how our habits (rituals) create habitual modes of thinking. Again, Confucius' concern here is with cultivating the heart-mind. 

[1] don't be a vessel
[2] don't be merely an officious scribe
[3] the goal of the sage is benevolence

Academia - Alexus McLeod and Intellectual Diversity

https://unpolishedjade.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/why-be-concerned-with-intellectual-diversity-in-philosophy/#comment-1310 from Alexus McLeod

This is an important topic, and I appreciate your voice in this discussion. I certainly sympathize regarding the "wandering" approach to knowledge.

Discovery is not a linear process, and attempts to streamline intellectual exploration simply collapse into intellectual mechanization. Wandering requires uncertainty and an open-minded receptivity to the manifold of possibility. Wandering requires constantly integrating different perspectives to navigate complex circumstances. Understanding wandering is essential for life because life is always changing. We cannot cling to one fixed perspective (especially perspectives bent on unthinking self-reproduction) and hope to survive.

Translation - Mencius 1.3: Do not violate the agricultural seasons.

I was working with some Mencius earlier, and it's good practice for reviving my training with Classical Chinese. Here's a good example:

不違農時，穀不可勝食也；數罟不入洿池，魚鼈不可勝食也

If you try to translate this as literally or directly as possible it gives you something like:

"Not violating [the] agricultural seasons, crops not possible victoriously eat. Numerous nets not in [the] stagnant waters (ponds?), fish [and] turtles not possible victoriously eat."

In classical Chinese the grammar often comes from the understood relationships in the sentence (subject/predicate and topic/comment). Other times there will be function words that provide grammar, but these often require understanding a complex conceptual relationship and knowing how to relate different parts to the whole. So, after thinking about this for a little while, I came to the following:

"Do not violate the agricultural seasons and you will not be able to successfully eat [all] the crops. Do not put numerous (too many) nets in the waters and you will not be able to successfully eat [all] the fish and turtles."

Legge boils this down some, embellishes some, and renders it like this:

"If you do not interfere with the busy seasons in the fields, then there will be more grain than the people can eat; if you do not allow nets with too fine a mesh to be used in large ponds, then there will be more fish and turtles than they can eat."

So, hopefully this provides some insight into the process: it takes not only knowing the words, but also being able to play with grammatical structures and conceptual relationships. And really, the grammar shapes the conceptual relationships, so knowing the different ways terms can relate is crucial. And this mostly comes from practice and learning the semantic structures.

Etymology - 概 = 木 + 即

木 mu "tree" + 既 ji "already" = 概 gai4 "generally; outline; without an exception"

I was having trouble remembering this character, so I started thinking of a phenomenological explanation:

In any experience we encounter the outlines of things, and the mind quickly imagines the details of the thing; as we process the information we see the details in the experience correlate to details of observation; this produces the imagination of further details and further miniature conjectures, which are in turn confirmed as we draw closer to the object in question.

The outline of the tree emerges in experience, perhaps similar to the manner the mind produces an image in response to the written word; the outline resolves into a more precise picture; the imagination increases the resolution of the idea: leaves sway on branches that spread out from the central axis; even if some variety that lacks a straight trunk, we still conjecture some architectural design, some patterning of branching lines that emerge from a central base and rise, reaching, into the air.

Philosophy - The False Dichotomy of Public and Private

For the lover of Wisdom there is no separation between public and private, there is only suffering or compassion. Any barrier we attempt to build to justify actions in private that we would consider unacceptable in public is merely a glass wall, a fictional barricade of rationalization. There is no purely private moment - there is no action or thought that exists in the vacuum of non-being, in some transcendental space separate from this world; there is no environment that in some way does not touch on the surrounding greater world.

In the Analects we see Confucius suggest that following the Odes is the proper Way, the Way that brings Harmony (He 和). We could mistakenly think that Confucius simply advocates conformity to ritual, to blind obedience - but this is far from true, and even a cursory reading of the text shows us that Confucius does not follow ritual for its own sake. Confucius goes so far as to say that we follow ritual because it creates harmony. Confucius critiques blind adherence to ritual as pedantic dogmatism, and alters ritual where needed.

On the other hand Confucius does not advocate changing ritual for its own sake. It may be possible to alter some rituals and still remain in the bounds of Rightness (Yi 義); but some alterations transgress the sage's sense of Rightness (Yi 義). For example, Confucius suggests that it is quite permissible to wear a less expensive ceremonial cap, as the point of the cap/hat is to show deference instead of opulence. However, Confucius argues it would be impossible to change rules of etiquette - such as bowing to the Emperor upon entering the room - and still maintain the sense of Propriety (Li 裡).

Similarly the Eight Fold Path of Buddhism reminds us to nurture "Right Thoughts." This is not a call to make thoughts conform to an external screed or script - rather this is a call to treat all our thoughts with mindfulness and care, so we do not nurture suffering in our own minds. Compassion begins with mindful recognition of Suffering. Compassion begins with our own mindful awareness of our own thoughts and feelings, of how we think about ourselves, of those around us, and the lives we live.

In this respect, again I say there is no distinction between public and private. Wherever we find ourselves we find ourselves with our thoughts and our potential actions. Even if unseen by others, we can still ask if our thoughts and actions nurture compassion or if our thoughts and actions perpetuate and increase suffering. This does not mean we should judge ourselves for being imperfect, for our own actions also require compassion, but we should be mindful of how out thoughts direct our attitude towards the world. Hopefully we see the rest of the world is always at hand, brushing against us as we rush through just as we are brushing against it.

As we rush through our lives, let us move with kindness towards those around us, and by extension, the kindness of all.