孔子：一个可以问一辈子的问题
Confucius: One Question for a Lifetime
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学生问了一个很大的问题
A Student Asks a Very Big Question
Confucius speaks with students seated under a tree, some holding bamboo slips.
两千五百多年前，Kǒngzǐ · 生活在两千五百多年前、在鲁国教学生的中国思想家和老师。在Lǔ guó · 周代的一个诸侯国，大致位于今天的山东一带，与孔子的生平密切相关。教学生。今天留下来的许多孔子故事，并不像一本从头讲到尾的教科书。常常是一个学生提出问题，孔子回答，有时答案只有短短的一两句话。
有一天，学生Zǐgòng · 孔子的学生，《论语》中记录了他向孔子提出的许多问题。问了一个很大的问题：“有没有一个原则，可以让人一辈子照着去做？”想一想，这个问题可不小。十岁的时候能用，二十岁能用，到了五十岁、八十岁还要能用。
孔子给出了一个核心原则：“shù · 从自己的感受出发，想到别人，并不把自己不愿承受的事情加给别人。。”接着他说：“己所不欲，勿施于人。”也就是，自己不希望别人怎样对待自己，也不要那样去对待别人。
听起来并不难。真正做到，却没有那么容易。
More than 2,500 years ago, Kǒngzǐ · 孔子 · A Chinese thinker and teacher who lived more than 2,500 years ago and taught in the state of Lu. taught students in the Lǔ guó · 鲁国 · An ancient state centered in what is now Shandong and closely connected with Confucius. in ancient China. The conversations connected with him do not sound much like a modern textbook. A student asks a question. Confucius answers. Sometimes the answer is only a sentence or two.
One day, a student named Zǐgòng · 子贡 · A student of Confucius whose questions appear repeatedly in the Analects. asked an enormous question: “Is there one guiding principle that a person could practice for an entire life?” Imagine asking a teacher for one idea that could still be useful when you were ten, twenty, fifty, or eighty years old.
Confucius answered with a guiding idea: shù · 恕 · Beginning with your own experience, considering another person, and not imposing on others what you would reject for yourself.. Then he explained what he meant: “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
It sounds simple enough. Using it is harder.
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先换一个位置想一想
Switch Places for a Moment
假如你花了很久做一样东西，另一个人却为了好玩把它弄坏了。那是什么感觉，你已经知道。所以下一次，当你也很想去破坏别人的东西时，不一定需要先翻一本厚厚的规则书。你可以从自己已经有过的感觉开始想：我不希望别人这样对我。那我是不是也不应该这样对别人？
“恕”里面就有这样一个动作：先从自己这里出发，再试着走到另一个人的位置上去看一看。
孔子当然不是说所有人喜欢的东西都一样，也不是说只要想一想别人的感受，所有争执就会自动解决。他给的是一个开始：做事情以前，不要永远只站在自己这一边看。
而真正困难的时候，往往正是自己特别想得到一样东西的时候。
Suppose you have spent a long time making something and another person ruins it for fun. You already know what that feels like. The next time you are tempted to knock down someone else’s work, you do not need a long rulebook. You can begin with something you have felt yourself. I would not want that done to me. So perhaps I should not do it to someone else.
That is the movement inside shù: begin where you are, then try to cross the distance between yourself and another person.
Confucius did not mean that everyone wants exactly the same things. Nor did he say that simply imagining another person’s feelings would solve every disagreement. His short answer gives you a place to begin: before acting, do not look only from your own side.
That can be especially difficult when you are the one who wants something.
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赢的时候，更难想起别人
It Is Harder When You Are Winning
想象两个人都赶着去排队。其中一个人往前一挤，抢到了前面。站在前面看，这个结果好像挺不错。可是回过头，从被挤开的那个人那里再看一次，同一件事情就完全不一样了。
孔子的这句话难就难在这里。什么都没有发生的时候，想到别人并不困难；可人在生气、兴奋、丢脸，或者马上就要占到便宜的时候，就很容易只看到自己。
Lúnyǔ · 记录孔子及其弟子言论和问答的一部古代文集。里，孔子常常让人把眼睛转回来看看自己。他还说过，几个人一起走路，其中一定有可以让自己学习的地方：看见别人做得好的，就学习；看见不好的，也可以回过头检查自己。
所以对孔子来说，学习不是把一句正确的话背出来就结束了。真正的功课，在后面。
Imagine two people racing toward the same place in line. One gets there first by pushing past the other. From the front of the line, the result may feel wonderful. Turn around, though, and the same moment looks different.
This is why Confucius’s answer is harder than it first appears. Remembering another person is easy when nothing important is happening. It becomes much harder when you are angry, excited, embarrassed, or about to get exactly what you want.
Again and again in the Lúnyǔ · 《论语》 · An ancient collection of sayings and conversations connected with Confucius and his students., Confucius asks people to look back at themselves instead of spending all their time judging other people. In another passage, he says that when walking with others, he can always find something to learn: follow what is good in them, and when you notice something bad, use it to examine yourself.
For Confucius, learning was not finished when you could repeat the right words. The important part came afterward.
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一本装着许多问答的书
A Book Full of Questions
孔子并没有亲手坐下来写一本叫《论语》的书。他去世以后，与他有关的谈话、回答和故事继续在人们之间流传。后来，这些材料逐渐被整理成了今天看到的《论语》。它读起来常常不像一篇长长的演讲，反而像走进了一间正在聊天的屋子：有学生问朋友，有人问做官，有人问学习，子贡则问了那个特别大的问题：有没有一个原则，可以用一辈子？
孔子的回答也不总是一样，因为学生问的问题本来就不一样。这正是《论语》很有意思的地方。很多时候，老师是在回答眼前这个人的问题，而不是把同一张“人生说明书”发给每一个人。
可是，子贡的问题特别容易让人记住：一个原则，可以用一辈子吗？
Confucius himself did not sit down and write a book called The Analects. After his death, sayings and conversations connected with him continued to be passed down. Over time, these materials were gathered into the collection we now call the Analects. The book often feels less like a long speech and more like walking into a room where many conversations are already happening. One student asks about friendship. Another asks about government. Someone asks about learning. Zǐgòng asks for one idea that could last a lifetime.
The answers are not always the same because the questions are not always the same. That is part of what makes the book interesting. Confucius is usually responding to a particular person or problem rather than handing everyone the same page of instructions.
But Zǐgòng’s question stands out because it asks whether one guiding principle can last a lifetime.
One principle for a lifetime?
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那个问题又回来了
The Question Comes Back
两千多年过去，孔子和子贡生活的世界已经变了很多。可是，我们做一件事情以前的那一小会儿，还在。
一句话马上要说出口，一件东西马上要伸手去拿，一个玩笑马上要开出来。在真正做以前，其实还有一点点时间。
孔子的回答，就可以放在这里。先换一个位置想一想：如果别人这样对我，我愿意吗？
子贡问的是有没有一个原则可以用一辈子。孔子给他的，是一个可以问很多很多次的问题。
More than two thousand years have passed since that conversation was written down. The world around it has changed almost beyond recognition. But the moment before an action has not disappeared.
You are about to say something. Take something. Push ahead. Make a joke at someone else’s expense. There is a tiny space before you do it.
That is where Confucius’s answer fits. For just a moment, switch places. Would I want this done to me?
Zǐgòng asked for one idea he could carry through an entire life. Confucius gave him a question worth asking again and again.