Major Assignment #1：A Chreia

October 10th, 2017

[Chreia] During B.C.E 770-476, the Spring and Autumn period in China,

Zhou's royal influence had declined, which motivated all the dukes and

marquesses to claim wars against each other hoping that they would

topple the Zhou Dynasty and replace Emperor Zhou to be the new and sole

hegemon of the entire country. While the period consisted of incessant

wars and quick exchange of regional rulers it also had fast economic

development and thoughts progression regarding governance. Confucius was

one of the most prominent philosophers, editors and politicians in

Spring and Autumn period whose wisdom teaching morals and superiority of

personal exemplification over explicit rules even survives thousands of

years to be printed onto school textbooks of today. As a politician,

Confucius initially served the Duke of Lu who owned one of the five most

robust hegemons of that period of time, but only became disappointed at

Duke of Lu's indulgence in pleasure and lack of passion in country

governance. Thus, he later resigned from Duke of Lu and started

travelling among countries, expounding his theories to the dukes of all

countries. Unfortunately, for the fourteen years after his resignation,

Confucius was not employed by any of the dukes despite of his marvelous

political mind. When one day, Confucius was again driving his carriage

on the road to another country, Zilu, one of the most well-known

disciples of Confucius, joked about their continuing exile and asked

Confucius how he considered their situation of not being appreciated and

why not

settled down to the dukes who offered positions but disagreed with Confucian theories, "Why we have not arrived yet?"

[Proverb]

"Haste brings no success," Confucius answered, "and receiving the

trivial benefits would block your way to accomplish your real goals."

[Paraphrase]

Hurrying into anything would not be an action of wisdom. Sometimes it

is necessary to be patient and calm if you want to achieve more. A

behavior generated in hasty would often lead to unexpected mistakes that

would severely delay realization of the original intentions.

[Case]

This Confucian proverb persuading people to be patient and remain

unperturbed has been told to his disciples more than once. As Zixia,

another disciple of Confucius, was assigned a local officer in Jufu

County he consulted Confucius about how to govern a county before he

left for the position. Confucius told him the exactly same piece of

wisdom, saying that when governing a county being patient achieving the

actual effect is of paramount importance for a local officer. As a

county develops there would always be limitations that slow down the

progress; however, when the limitation is reached, Zixia should place

his priority in pursuing a desired effect of implementing his policies

rather than rushing through in a perfunctory manner. If Zixia were to

behave in haste, he would not become an admired officer because his

people recognize what their officer intends to achieve, a political

monument for himself or an improvement of life qualities for his people.

[Encomium] Patience is capable of bringing more valuable

results than hasty is capable of bearing. Confucius' wisdom states the

truth with regard to a number of fields in our lives and, together with

countless other quotes of the same inspirational soul, sustained the

wash of time.

[Example] This piece of wisdom rings in the

contemporary societies. For example, a student who is running late to

class waits for the traffic light before she crosses the road because a

caution of safety is of priority for anyone. If a car accident happens

because this student is so anxious that she didn't see the coming

traffic, the result would be a thousand times more horrible than being

late to a class. Besides, her plan of studying would be interrupted due

to the unanticipated injuries.

[Another Case] Coincidentally,

Confucius’ idea seems to be the same as in Aesop. In the fable of Aesop,

there is a story about a thirsty pigeon. A thirsty Pigeon saw a glass

of water on a sign. She flew toward it and slammed it and broke her

wing. She consequently was caught by a bystander. Aesop warned his

readers that act in haste and repent at leisure.

[Example]

I believe that global warming is a phenomenon that reversely proved the

saying of Confucius, "Haste brings no success and receiving the trivial

benefits would block your way to accomplish a real career." During the

first and second industrial revolution, smoke and soot blackening

squares and squares of the world. The roaring steaming machines

undoubtfully brought human civilization to a brand-new page in terms of

economy, industry, and many facets

of development; however, it

also pressed numerous then living species into extinguished legendary

creatures in books. The percentage of carbon dioxide has been rising for

the past century and the glaciers in Antarctica are being erased on

this planet, which also put human's living condition into a previously

totally unexpected precarious situation. Many countries in contemporary

societies realize the problem and try to solve it by increasing their

percentage of forest land coverage but only get trivial effect. The

original intention of the industrial revolutions was to create better

living conditions for ourselves; now we have enough material resources

but at the cost of having exacerbated the decline of the more precious

natural environment of our home planet.

[Policy] In

operating any vehicle, hasty is the least appreciated attitude for the

operator to have because the troubles resulted from being in haste would

prevent one from arriving in time. Walking in haste also causes people

to fall and even trip themselves on the way.

[Epilogue]

Confucius refused to take offer from dukes who did not fully understand

him because he would not achieve full potentials in those job offers.

Success does not always come as anticipated but opportunities will

certainly be missed as complication occurs. It is always beneficial to

watch one's steps with caution, especially when anxiety attacks

hammering panic in one's head because someone who is in haste could

cause unforeseen troubles that severely prevent them from reaching their

goals.