Note 16 — THE SAYINGS OF CONFUCIUS (continued 2)

This is rightly considered to be one of the moat important of the Master s sayings, because it gives the clue to his whole philosophy and view of life. The "connecting thread," as we learn from another passage (see p. 118), is simply the moral life, which consists in being true to oneself and good to one's neighbour. Confucius wished to impress upon his disciple that he was no mere amasser of knowledge nor lover of learning for learning's sake. The one thing necessary, in his eyes, was to be able to lead, in the highest sense of the word, a moral life, and this was the real object of all learning, the end and aim of all knowledge. Throughout the Analects, as we have already seen, the usual word for "learning" always means or implies the study of virtue, the striving after self-improvement. Like Socrates, Confucius was purely a moral philosopher, and would certainly have rejected the sharp distinction we draw nowadays between mental and moral science.