In the second week of September, we delved into the truths of Confucius in a lecture by Dr. V. Silius on "Confucius - The Teacher". We also celebrated Teacher's Day in China on 10 September, which is associated with the philosopher's birthday. After all, Confucius (Kongzi 孔子) entered Chinese tradition and is still remembered today as the "teacher of ten thousand generations".
The lecture was divided into two parts: a story about Confucius himself, and an explanation about learning and teaching.
At the beginning of the lecture, the speaker presented the historical context in which Confucius was born and grew up and how he began his educational journey. It was a period of warring kingdoms and this political-social disruption contributed to the need and awareness to seek other ways of life than the military path.
This period is also known in intellectual history as the Hundred Schools period. It was the period when what we now call the philosophical schools (Taoism, Legalism, Moism, etc.) flourished. As Mr Silius has pointed out, these were the circumstances that had a profound influence on Confucius' education.
What we know best about Confucius is a book we call Lunyu 論語 "The Analects: Conclusions and Conversations". It is a text made up of 500 short dialogue-like paragraphs. This work has become central to Chinese civilisation, and has become important in the whole region influenced by Chinese culture.
The image of Confucius as a teacher has been transferred to Europe from the very first moments of contact. Dr Silius gave an illustrative presentation of the representations of this philosopher in both Eastern and Western art.
During the second part of the lecture we delved into two main concepts: studying and learning xue 學 and teaching jiao 教.
Some thoughts from the lecture: learning is a task of human and personal development, not a pragmatic quest for a better life; the learner is a person with a broad outlook and high ambition; learning must be infused with independent, reflective and deep thinking.
On the subject of teaching, the speaker pointed out that the teacher is not an instructor, but more of an existential reference point to which one can relate. Teaching is individual and impossible without inner motivation.
In response to the question of who is a teacher, the speaker said that a teacher cannot be a teacher without an active student. You are a teacher as long as someone is actively learning from you.
This lecture also focused on the importance of knowledge and why it should be pursued.
Here are some of the speaker's thoughts at the end of the lecture.
The ultimate in learning and cultivating oneself is not even a perfect man 君子 but a wise man 圣人 . The most important thing is talking, listening and being attentive to each other.
At the end of the lecture, the metaphor of comparing an educated person - both student and teacher - to a musician resonated beautifully. Not only can he play his part, but he reaches a level where he can improvise, which is only possible for someone who knows how to listen attentively to another.