孔子的一句话：先把自己放到别人心里

Page 1

一个动荡时代里的老师

A Teacher in a Troubled Time

两千五百多年前，孔子出生在鲁国 - 那是当时许多小国中的一个，位置在今天山东中国东部的沿海省份。看中国地图时，山东有一块半岛伸进黄海；北京在它的西北方向，上海在它的南边。的曲阜一带。那时的中国还没有统一，许多小国彼此来往、争夺，也常常打仗。大人们讨论的是怎样让国家变强；孔子却总在追问另一个问题：人怎样才能把日子过好，也和别人相处得好？

他读诗、学礼、研究古书，也带着学生一路学习、讨论。那并不是一所今天这样的学校：没有铃声，没有整齐的课桌。学生跟着老师读书、提问，有时还会认真争论。

孔子关心的并不只是“知道多少”。他更在意一个人会不会认真学习，会不会答应了事就做到，会不会在自己生气或得意的时候，仍然想到别人。

他常说的一个重要字是 仁。这个字很难用一个英文词完全说清，可以把它先理解成：心里装着别人，愿意用善意和责任去对待人。孔子觉得，这不是背会一句漂亮话就行，而是一辈子慢慢练出来的本领。

More than 2,500 years ago, Confucius was born in Lu, one of the many small states that existed before China became one united country. Lu was near today’s city of Qufu in ShandongA coastal province in eastern China. On a map, its peninsula reaches into the Yellow Sea; Beijing is northwest of it, and Shanghai is farther south.. The rulers of these states made plans, formed alliances, and sometimes fought wars.

While grown-ups argued about how to make a state powerful, Confucius kept returning to a different question: How can people live well and get along well with one another?

He studied poems, old books, music, and rules for important ceremonies. He also taught students. This was not a school with a bell and rows of desks. Students learned by reading, asking questions, and sometimes disagreeing with their teacher.

Confucius cared about more than how much a person knew. He cared whether someone kept a promise, learned carefully, and remembered other people even when feeling angry, excited, or proud.

One of his important ideas was ren (say “run”). No single English word captures it perfectly. You can begin by thinking of it as a caring, responsible way of treating other people. Confucius believed it took a lifetime of practice.

Page 2

“有没有一句话能用一辈子？”

“Is There One Idea I Can Use for My Whole Life?”

《论语》里记着这样一段问答。这本书收集了许多和孔子、学生有关的谈话与问答。其中一位学生叫子贡。他问孔子：“有没有一个字，或者一句话，可以让我用一辈子去做？”孔子回答：“其恕乎！己所不欲，勿施于人。”

这里的“恕”，不是简单地说“算了吧”。它更像一种换位思考的能力：先从自己身上想一想，再去想别人会不会也有同样的感受。

“己所不欲，勿施于人”可以这样读：你自己不希望别人这样对你，就不要把同样的事加在别人身上。

比如，大家正在搭积木。你辛辛苦苦搭了一座小城堡，别人突然一把推倒，你会怎样？也许会又生气又难过。下一次，当你看见别人的作品时，这种记忆就提醒你：我不能因为好玩，就去毁掉它。

又比如，朋友讲了一件不想让大家知道的事。你当然也不喜欢自己的秘密被人到处说。那就先停一停，不把它当成好笑的新闻传出去。

The Analects collects many sayings and conversations connected with Confucius and his students. In one of them, a student named Zigong asked a huge question: “Is there one word, or one idea, that I can use all my life?” Confucius answered: “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

The key Chinese word here is shu. It is about making an effort to imagine another person’s feelings. Start with your own experience, then use it to understand someone else.

Imagine that you spent a long time building a block castle. Someone comes by and knocks it down just for fun. You might feel angry and sad. The next time you see someone else’s creation, that memory can remind you not to wreck it.

Or perhaps a friend tells you something private. You would not want your own secret turned into playground news. So you pause before passing it along.

Page 4

《论语》从哪里来？

Where Did The Analects Come From?

孔子没有亲手写下一本叫《论语》的书。孔子去世以后，与他有关的谈话、问答和故事在不同人之间流传。后来，追随孔子思想的人把其中许多材料整理成了《论语》。它不是一本按日期写好的传记，更像一间能听见许多声音的小屋：有老师的回答，也有学生的问题，还有后人不断思考这些回答的痕迹。

后来的传统说孔子有“三千弟子”，其中“七十二贤人”特别出名。这些数目流传很广，但离孔子生活的年代已经很久，今天的历史学家不能把它们当成精确的班级名单。

我们能够确定的是：孔子后来被人们看作中国历史上最重要的老师之一，而《论语》也成了影响很深的一部经典。许多世纪里，读书人读它，老师讲它，家庭里的大人也会用里面的话提醒孩子。它影响过教育、家庭关系和人们对“好老师、好学生、好官员”的想象。不过，中国历史上还有许多别的思想家和书；《论语》很重要，却不是唯一的声音。

Confucius did not sit down and write a book called The Analects. After his death, conversations, questions, and stories connected with him were passed from person to person. Over time, people who followed his ideas gathered many of them into The Analects.

It is not a biography written day by day. It is more like a room full of voices: a teacher answering, students asking, and later readers thinking hard about what those answers meant.

Tradition says that Confucius taught 3,000 students and that 72 were especially famous. Those numbers have been repeated for a very long time, but they are not a precise class list that historians can check today.

What we do know is that later generations remembered Confucius as one of China’s most important teachers, and The Analects became a deeply influential classic. For centuries, students read it, teachers explained it, and families repeated its sayings. It was not the only important book or the only voice in Chinese thought - but it was one of the most lasting.