ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

This another book that I was assigned to read for some class about a million years ago.  Even though I’ve theoretically read this book, I doubt I absorbed any of it. I may not actually have even read it for my class. Basically this is a slightly more readable translation than some of the older ones, and it could be subtitled “How to be Good” to which the answer is mostly “subjugate all your desires and opinions to make others happy”. I started reading it today but it’s not really holding my interest. I recently decided that even though I’d like to be well rounded, what’s the sense in reading something I don’t enjoy? So that the enrichment of Confucius doesn’t entirely pass me by, I’ll flip through this and skim it lightly in an effort to pick up some of the more meaningful bits of advice and try to interpret and apply them to my life.

15.12: The Master said: “A man with no concern for the future is bound to worry about the present.”

People who worry too much about getting gifts wind up too distracted to plan their futures.

10.17: The stables burned. The Master left court and asked: “Was anyone hurt?” He did not inquire about the horses.

Horses aren’t important and they’re stupid anyway.

11.11: Yan Hui died. The disciples wanted to give him a grand burial. The Master said: “This is not right.” The disciples gave him a grand burial. The Master said: “Yan Hui treated me as his father, and yet I was not given the chance to treat him as my son. This is not my fault, but yours, my friends.”

If someone else beats you to an opportunity to do something good, they have done something wrong and it is not your fault that you never did it.

5.18: The Master said: “Zang Sunchen built a house for his tortoise, with pillars in the shape of mountains and rafters decorated with duckweed. Had he lost his mind?”

Yes, yes he had.