文化 | Hello China 英文版《你好中国》（03-04）

《你好，中国》选取了100个代表中国传统文化精髓的汉语词汇，从不同侧面反映中国文化的博大精深，加深国外民众对中国和中华文化的了解。《你好，中国》围绕这100个文化词汇，制作出三种不同媒体形态的产品，即：100集电视系列片、由100篇文化短文组成的图书，以及《你好，中国》学习网站。
　　《你好，中国》的三种不同形态的产品备具特色，分别承担不同的教学与传播功能：电视系列片主要体现趣味性和文化性，其目的在于引起受众的兴趣，加深受众的感性认识；网站与纸质图书主要体现《你好，中国》的教学功能，使受众在了解中国文化背景知识的同时，初步掌握简单的汉语。

本文分享“文化 | Hello China 英文版“你好中国”（03-04） ”。通过英语学习中国优秀文化，做更好的英语学习者，

03 Confucius

Confucius, Pinyin romanization Kongfuzi, or Kongzi, Wade-Giles K'ung-fu-tzu, or K'ung-tzu, original name Kongqiu, literary name Zhongni, (born 551, Qufu, state of Lu [now in Shandong province, China]—died 479 BCE, Lu), China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist, whose ideas have influenced the civilization of East Asia.

Confucius (551?-479? BCE), according to Chinese tradition, was a thinker, political figure, educator, and founder of the Ru School of Chinese thought. His teachings, preserved in the Lunyu or Analects, form the foundation of much of subsequent Chinese speculation on the education and comportment of the ideal man, how such an individual should live his life and interact with others, and the forms of society and government in which he should participate. Fung Yu-lan, one of the great 20thcentury authorities on the history of Chinese thought, compares Confucius' influence in Chinese history with that of Socrates in the West.

The sources for Confucius' life were compiled well after his death and taken together paint contradictory pictures of his personality and of the events in his life. The early works agreed by textual authorities to be relatively reliable sources of biographical material are: the Analects, compiled by Confucius' disciples and later followers during the centuries following his death; the Zuozhuan, a narrative history composed from earlier sources sometime in the fourth century; and the Mengzi or Mencius, a compilation of the teachings of the well-known eponymous fourth century follower of Confucius' thought put together by his disciples and adherents. The Confucius of the Analects appears most concerned with behaving morally even when this means enduring hardship and poverty. Mencius' Confucius is a politically motivated figure, seeking high office and departing from patrons who do not properly reward him. A third Confucius is found in the pages of the Zuozhuan. This one is a heroic figure courageously facing down dangers that threaten the lord of Confucius' native state of Lu.

Confucius and Education

A hallmark of Confucius' thought is his emphasis on education and study. He disparages those who have faith in natural understanding or intuition and argues that the only real understanding of a subject comes from long and careful study. Study, for Confucius, means finding a good teacher and imitating his words and deeds. A good teacher is someone older who is familiar with the ways of the past and the practices of the ancients. (See Lunyu 7.22) While he sometimes warns against excessive reflection and meditation, Confucius' position appears to be a middle course between learning and reflecting on what one has learned. “He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger” (Lunyu 2.15). He taught his students morality, proper speech, government, and the refined arts. While he also emphasizes the “Six Arts” — ritual, music, archery, chariot-riding, calligraphy, and computation — it is clear that he regards morality as the most important subject. Confucius' pedagogical methods are striking. He never discourses at length on a subject. Instead he poses questions, cites passages from the classics, or uses apt analogies, and waits for his students to arrive at the right answers. “Only for one deeply frustrated over what he does not know will I provide a start; only for one struggling to form his thoughts into words will I provide a beginning. But if I hold up one corner and he cannot respond with the other three I will not repeat myself” (Lunyu 7.8).

Confucius' goal is to create gentlemen who carry themselves with grace, speak correctly, and demonstrate integrity in all things. His strong dislike of the sycophantic “petty men,” whose clever talk and pretentious manner win them an audience, is reflected in numerous Lunyu passages. Confucius finds himself in an age in which values are out of joint. Actions and behavior no longer correspond to the labels originally attached to them. “Rulers do not rule and subjects do not serve,” he observes. (Lunyu 12.11; cf. also 13.3) This means that words and titles no longer mean what they once did. Moral education is important to Confucius because it is the means by which one can rectify this situation and restore meaning to language and values to society. He believes that the most important lessons for obtaining such a moral education are to be found in the canonical Book of Songs, because many of its poems are both beautiful and good. Thus Confucius places the text first in his curriculum and frequently quotes and explains its lines of verse. For this reason, the Lunyu is also an important source for Confucius' understanding of the role poetry and art more generally play in the moral education of gentlemen as well as in the reformation of society. Recent archaeological discoveries in China of previously lost ancient manuscripts reveal other aspects of Confucius's reverence for the Book of Songsand its importance in moral education. These manuscripts show that Confucius had found in the canonical text valuable lessons on how to cultivate moral qualities in oneself as well as how to comport oneself humanely and responsibly in public.

04 Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu is known as a Chinese military strategist, Taoist philosopher, and general in the 6th century BCE who is widely recognized for his work The Art of War, a treatise on military strategy (also known as The Thirteen Chapters). Whether an individual by the name of `Sun-Tzu’ existed at all has been disputed (in the same way scholars and historians debate the existence of an actual man named Lao-Tzu) but the existence of The Art of War and its profound influence on military campaigns, clearly proves that someone existed to produce said work and that the work is attributed to one Sun-Tzu.  The historian Griffith writes:

War, an integral part of the power politics of the age, had become `a matter of vital importance to the state, the province of life and death, the road to survival or ruin’. To be waged successfully, it required a coherent strategic and tactical theory and a practical doctrine governing intelligence, planning, command, operational, and administrative procedures. The author of `The Thirteen Chapters’ was the first man to provide such a theory and such a doctrine. (Griffith, 44).

英语学习频道

ID：sxlsxzb

学习之路，现在开始也不晚

英文教室

ID：yingwenjiaoshi

每天与您分享各种有趣的英语学习资源！