Tradition
Confucian
A tradition originating with Kongzi in China in the sixth century BCE and carried through the classics, commentaries and schools that grew around them. Its concern is conduct: how a person becomes reliable, how ritual and family order a life, and what composure under difficulty looks like in someone who has done the work. Its teaching survives mostly as recorded remarks, often answers to a named questioner rather than statements made to nobody.
3 passages
Passages
PhilosophyA philosophical argument
Analects XII.4Sze-ma Niu asked about the superior man. The Master said, "The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear." "Being without anxiety or fear!" said Niu;—"does this constitute what we…PhilosophyA philosophical argument
Analects XV.20–21The Master said, "What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others." The Master said, "The superior man is dignified, but does not wrangle. He is s…PhilosophyA philosophical argument
Analects VI.9The Master said, "Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui! With a single bamboo dish of rice, a single gourd dish of drink, and living in his mean narrow lane, while others could no…