Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Golden and Silver Rule

The following is from wiki about Confucious:

Perhaps his most famous teaching was the Golden Rule stated in the negative form, often called the silver rule:

子貢問曰、有一言、而可以終身行之者乎。子曰、其恕乎、己所不欲、勿施於人。
Adept Kung asked: "Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?"
The Master replied: "How about 'shu' [reciprocity]: never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself?"
Analects XV.24, tr. David Hinton


Golden Rule is Jesus's famous statement "do to others what you would have them do to you" Matthew 7:12

So Jesus and Confucious basically have an equivalent statement, how come one gold and one silver? (Ok, that's meaningless protest).

己所不欲、勿施於人: I always thought the meaning was something like this: don't like a gift? don't recycle it and give to another person. I didn't realize this deeper meaning. This is a statement for use throughout life: 可終身行之一言!

About the translation: 'shu' (恕) = reciprocity? Um, I thought reciprocity is x and 1/x? As far as I understand 恕 is forgiveness!

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