Chapter 12: An Alternative Interpretation of "Analects"

  Two people asked and answered each other, and the students of Class 7 burst out laughing.

  Some classmates also thought in their hearts, it seems that Zhou Fan is not so annoying after all.

  It turns out that although Zhou Fan doesn't like reading books, often fights outside and has even extorted students from other schools, but after all, he hasn't bullied a single student in Class 7. In fact, it's said that Zhou Fan had helped many students in Class 7 before.

  "Alright, classmates, let's continue our lesson."

  Jian Zhou Fan sat down properly, Fang Ruo Han held the textbook and continued to explain.

  This lesson reviews the Analects of Confucius.

  Like Zhou Fan's previous life, Confucius holds an astonishing position in this world and is also known as a sage.

  Nature, what Confucius said is also known as Analects, also known as the classic of Confucianism, passed down for thousands of years.

  The Master said, The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.

  At this point, Fang Ruo Han paused meaningfully and prepared to ask a question.

  Is there a classmate who can interpret this sentence: The people can be made to follow it, but they cannot be made to understand it.

  It was a beautiful teacher who asked the question, and since they had been reading Confucius from junior high school, everyone recited it fluently. Many classmates raised their hands at once. Especially Li Shaohua, the representative of Chinese class, held up his right hand high.

  "Alright, Li Shaohua, you answer this one."

  "Answering the teacher, the people can be made to follow it, but cannot be made to know it. The meaning is that a country only needs to make its people do things and doesn't need to let them know how to do them."

  "Good answer, take a seat."

  Li Shaohua had just answered this sentence when Zhou Fan heard it and couldn't help but laugh sarcastically.

  Unexpectedly, Zhou Fan's slight snort of laughter was caught by Fang Ruo Han, who immediately turned her eyes and asked, "I saw that it seems a certain classmate has a different opinion. Zhou Fan, what do you think this sentence means?"

  Upon hearing Fang Ruo Han's clarification, Zhou Fan stood up and said, "Actually, I don't understand what this sentence means."

  Zhou Fan didn't want to show off, the laughter just now was just because he couldn't hold it in.

  However, Zhou Fan said he didn't know, but Li Shaohua on the side spoke up, as if feeling his views were being refuted, and casually spat out a sentence, "You don't understand, what are you talking about?"

  This sentence with obvious aggressive tone made Zhou Fan frown, originally didn't want to say anything, but seeing Li Shaohua's response, he couldn't help but get angry and said, "Mr. Kong has already said it, if you know then you know, if you don't know then just say you don't know, I said I don't know, is there something wrong with that?"

  This sentence is so bad it's hilarious.

  Li Shaohua felt that he was being teased by Zhou Fan, and again didn't know what to say, so he just coldly snorted a sentence.

  Just then, Zhou Fan opened his mouth and didn't want to take it back. He thought of killing that guy's momentum. Then he spoke again, "Besides, although I don't know the meaning of this sentence. However, I do know. Looking at Confucianism, what is said is just one word 'Ren', Ren loves the country, Ren governs the country. The Analects should be a classic of Confucianism, and it is also promoting the idea of Ren. Ask, how could Confucius say that people can be made to follow, but cannot be made to know? Isn't this fooling the people?"

  Zhou Fan talked endlessly, although he didn't explain what this sentence really means. However, through analysis, people still feel that this sentence can't be explained like this. If it's explained like this, then it doesn't match Confucius' advocated ideas. Even Li Shaohua felt that Zhou Fan's words had some reason after listening, but he didn't agree in his heart and didn't know where this little rascal got these misinterpreted Analects books from, now bringing them to the classroom to confuse a group of students, so he said again, "Then according to you, how should this sentence be translated?"

  "It's actually quite simple, I think the punctuation of this sentence is problematic. Who told everyone that the punctuation for '民可使由之，不可使知之' should be like this? We need to know that in ancient China, there were no punctuation marks. Back then, scholars had to learn how to punctuate when reading books. So, this sentence in ancient times should have been read together without commas or periods. If we read it this way, maybe it would make more sense."

  The people can be made to follow it, but they cannot be made to know it.

  It looks like this sentence is still this sentence, but if you break it off here, the meaning is absolutely opposite.

  "My goodness."

  Innumerable classmates cast sidelong glances at Zhou Fan's new explanation, thinking to themselves, "So there's actually an interpretation like this."

  Even Fang Ruohan was thrilled after seeing it.

  If it's broken down like this, then it's settled. If the people are capable, then let them be. If they're not capable, then teach them to be.

  In connection with the context, such a punctuation seems more in line with Confucius' doctrine of benevolence and righteousness.

  Other students may just be surprised, thinking that Zhou Fan is clever. However, as a Chinese language major, Fang Ruo Han knows the impact of this sentence. To know that people can be made to follow, but cannot be made to understand, this sentence has been debated in academic circles for a long time.

  Many academic masters have all seen that this sentence is different from Confucius' advocacy of benevolence and righteousness.

  They think that a great sage like Confucius, how could he say such things? If ordinary people heard it, wouldn't they curse him to death? However, even so, many scholars and masters don't know how to explain it. In the end, they can only assume that Confucius was an upper-class person, he was an official, he managed others, his academic writings were for the consideration of the upper class, not something ordinary people couldn't accept. That's why he would say such things.

  Although this explanation can also be clear, there is still some forcedness after all.

  However, Zhou Fan simply ended the debate with just one sentence, resolving an academic controversy that had lasted for thousands of years.

  If Fang Ruohan didn't force herself to be calm, she would probably have screamed by now.

  Genius.

  In her heart, the two words "genius" kept echoing in Fang Ruohan's mind.

  "Zhou Fan, your translation is very good, please take a seat."

  This is an invitation, using honorific language, not something a teacher would normally say as "sit down".

  Seeing Zhou Fan sitting down with an arrogant expression, Li Shaohua's face turned as red as a pig's liver, feeling as if he had been slapped by Zhou Fan.

  Tianya.cn Editorial Department

  "Wuyue" is an editor in the editorial department of Tianya.cn, and his work as an editor is quite dull, mainly reviewing books.

  Of course, if they find a particularly outstanding work, Wu Yue will record it and prepare for further development or even sign a contract directly.

  The books that were stored today are just average, Wu Yue reviewed for two hours and didn't find any good works.

  Looked at the bookshelf, there was one last book left, sighed and said, "If this one doesn't have anything interesting either, then I'll call it a day."

  The Book and the Sword

  This is the title of the book.

  The name is ordinary and unremarkable, neither good nor bad, just so-so.

  Author Zhou Yifan, directly skipping over Wuyue, are all new authors' names, nothing to look at, and not even a great god opening a new book.

  In the 18th year of the Qianlong reign, June, in the inner courtyard of the Fufeng Yangwei Town General's Mansion in Shaanxi Province, a 14-year-old girl skipped and hopped towards the study where her teacher was waiting...

  After more than ten minutes, Wu Yue let out a sigh.

  The author's writing style is excellent, but he seems unfamiliar with writing techniques.

  Take a look at this one, no time travel, no golden finger, three... even the protagonist of Wuyue Lian doesn't know who he is.

  Yes, at least he has read the first chapter now, and he still can't tell who the protagonist is.

  If it weren't for his exceptional writing skills, he wouldn't have bothered reading it.

  However, Wu Yue still had a mind to keep an eye on this book, wanting to see if he had left any contact information. After all, someone with such good writing skills, if they changed their subject matter or writing style, success would be visible. He thought about adding the person's PP and contacting them, but unfortunately, the person hadn't left any way to get in touch, so he could only give up.

  Channel 6459.

  Today Zhou Fan didn't attend the evening self-study session. After finishing his afternoon classes, he went back home.

  Yesterday, he promised 6459, Zhou Fan didn't want to break his promise, after finishing dinner, Zhou Fan went online.

  "Nuo Er, I heard you've recruited a male singer?"

  Channel 6459, where a manager named Da Dao asked towards Nuo Er.

  "Yes, what?"

  "Come on, we may be short-handed, but let's not just pick anyone to fill in."

  The big knife came straight and spoke straightforwardly, without considering why Nuoer insisted on finding a man.

  In his opinion, all that's needed in YY are cute girls, what's the use of having a man?

  "Big Knife, don't you trust Nuo Er's eyesight?"

  Yang Ming stood up at this time and said to Da Dao.

  "Yang Tou, this is a matter of two knives. Anyway, later he will come up and test him, if he can't pass, then our 6459 doesn't need such a singer."

  "Hmm..."

  Nuo Er didn't say anything, just coldly snorted a sentence.

  Several people were discussing, at this time, Nuo'er saw Zhou Fan come online and said to everyone, "Everyone, he's here."

  "Alright, pull him into the meeting channel and let's have a chat with him."

  “OK。”

  Zhou Fang had just gone online on YY and was thinking of listening to other singers' K songs in 6459, but unexpectedly, he was directly pulled into the conference channel.

  "Hello, welcome to 6459."

  "Welcome..."

  Everyone was still quite polite and welcomed Zhou Fan's arrival.

  "Thank you."

  After taking a look at the management inside, Nuo Er was also there, thinking that they should have discussed cooperation before the concert.

  "Hello, friend. We are 6459, an entertainment KTV channel. Most of our activities are KTV-related, including profitable businesses. Our main model is a monthly ticket system, and as for our cooperation split, it's 50/50. What do you think?"

  "No problem."

  This was also divided into various channels, Zhou Fan didn't think carefully and directly nodded.

  Then Nora said some other cooperation details and other operations.

  "That's basically it, after 8 o'clock later, you can go on mic."

  Nuo'er still knew Zhou Fan's strength and didn't have any other requests, just mentioning the specific cooperation. However, Da Dao, who had a conflict with Nuo'er earlier, suddenly spoke up, "Haha, Zhou Fan, nice to meet you, let me introduce myself, I'm one of the 6459 administrators, my name is Da Dao, you can also call me Da Dao."

  The big knife spoke coarsely, with a very powerful voice, "I heard you're the singer Nora invited. I don't know, can you sing us a song before going on stage? This way it's also good to help you warm up the crowd, what do you think?"

  After hearing this, Zhou Fan immediately understood what Da Kao meant. It turned out that the guy wanted to test himself. His heart felt a bit uncomfortable - he had already come here, so why bother testing? Since you've invited me and already know my strength, I won't do such a performance for your amusement. Zhou Fan said, "There's no need to warm up, I believe in my own strength. If you think I'm not qualified, then I'll leave immediately."

  This sentence was thrown out here, and Zhou Fan was about to make his escape.

  Although Zhou Fan needs money now, he doesn't want to cooperate with a group of guys who don't trust him.

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