Confucius Didn't Say That: Find the Right Focus

There's not a person who wonders what life would be like if they were wealthy. Who hasn't dreamed of winning the lottery? Why couldn't have life just turned out a little bit differently?

Well, buckle up, my fellow Confucius Fanatics, on this post of "Confucius Didn't Say That", I enter unprecedented, new territory... a quote that isn't quite by Confucius, but it's the closest we've ever come on the series.

You'll see, I don't want to spoil it just yet.

Here's today's gem:


"Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven." - Confucius 


Unlike most quotes on the series, which are largely pulled out a black hole of Google ignorance and idiocy, this quote is ACTUALLY IN THE ANALECTS.

Tim & Eric to the rescue. This .gif has aged like fine wine. It's a classic. 

Yeah, it shocked me too. It's as if the top ten Google quotes have been getting better of late..so yes, we have our first quote on the series that is actually in the Analects and yet I still scratched out Confucius in the quote above because.....wait for it.... he didn't actually say it.

This is as close as we've come on this blog series to an actual quote from Confucius but let's make this absolutely clear,  the quote actually comes from Zi Xia, one of Confucius' disciples, not Confucius himself.  Zi Xia was a pretty big deal too, it seems after Confucius' death, he opened up his own Confucian school and was quite successful....but the truth is even more complicated than that because once you see the quote in context, the quote really isn't even from Zi Xia! 

Zi Xia is actually quoting a (traditional) proverb. There's no evidence to suggest one or way or the other if Confucius would agree with this proverb (although I have a few guesses below). 

So, while it's as close to having a "real" Confucius quote on this blog series....as far as I am concerned it's just as bad as the others. Not only is it not from Confucius, but the quote is also completely and utterly out of context. So much so, it renders the actual passage to mean something nearing the approximate opposite of its intention.

Here's the full context, again from my favorite online translation, AC Muller, it's from 12:5:

"Sima Niu, upset, said: “Everyone has brothers, I alone have none.”

Zi Xia said, “I have heard this proverb: "Life and death are up to Fate. Wealth and honor are held by Heaven."

“If the noble man is reverent without lapse, and courteous to everyone within the frame of propriety, everything within the four seas will be his brother. Why should a noble man be concerned about not having brothers?”

The quote taken out of context seems to be saying that your birth and death are fated but your wealth is a blessing from Heaven. To Western ears, the idea of Heaven would likely be associated with God.  One might get the impression that Confucius had similar ideas about God/Heaven that many Westerners have. One might think Confucius is like the ancient Joel Osteen, health and wealth, baby!

Look, I have nothing clever to say here, just that Joel Osteen is an idiot.

Even if this quote was 100% true, I find it neither insightful nor helpful. It's the worst kind of advice or "wisdom" proverbs.  It reinforces the idea that you have no control over your life. Life and death? Fated. You're not rich? Too bad, God doesn't want you to be rich, you greedy butt-hole. You play the role of a victim in a game where you didn't set the rules and can't even control your own game piece.

I disagree with the quote on the merit of its claims as well. I don't think your life or death is fated, I don't think God wills people to be wealthy or poor. While free will is limited, it's also a fact that we do have at least some free will. And before you get technical on me, even if it turns out we don't have free will in any meaningful way, it's certainly better to believe it.

Let's unpack the analect selection a little further but I should point out I am only an amateur Chinese philosopher fan (I bet you haven't heard that very often). I freely admit I don't have a firm grasp of the Chinese language used here nor am I an expert on the concepts or historical background. On one hand, I am not sure if it's "fate" or "Fate" (I've seen this translated differently) and I am honestly not sure what the difference between my death being ordained by Fate (or fate) and my wealth determined by Heaven might be, given that they are both out of my hands. Although I could explain Confucius' conception of Heaven better than his idea of "Fate", I don't need to bother because it neither help us really understand the meaning and message of the passage.


Okay, so that's just getting the theoretical stuff out the way, hopefully, this next part won't be so boring. 
Now we gotta talk about Sima Niu.  Trust me, it's important, just bear with me.

Sima Niu is described as being "upset" when he pathetically states, "Everyone has brothers, I alone have none.” You might be thinking this is an exaggeration for effect because, after all, we all have felt alone in the world at one time or another. However, it turns out he really did "lose" his brothers (at least in some sense).

According to Edward Slingerland (his translation of the Analects is clear and his additional notes indispensable), one of Sima Niu's older brothers had caused trouble for Confucius previously and had planned a revolt against his sovereign, while his other older brother had already carried out an unsuccessful revolt earlier in his life.

As Slingerland states, "The comment 'He alone has no brothers' is not meant literally; the point is either that he has no brothers truly worthy of being considered brothers, or that all of (his) brothers are in exile...and therefore as good as dead" (Slingerland 127). Meaning, Sima Niu is feeling lost and without a center. He is in need of good advice.

Zi Xia's first response to Sima Niu's suffering is that traditional proverb we've already read... but he immediately follows it up with the wisdom of his own. This immediate response might be read as a slight rebuke of the proverb. It implies the old proverb is at least not applicable in this case and at worse it implies the proverb to not be useful at all.

The advice that Zi Xia does give focuses on what the upset Sima Niu can do. And the advice is really good:  

“If the noble man is reverent without lapse, and courteous to everyone within the frame of propriety, everything within the four seas will be his brother. Why should a noble man be concerned about not having brothers?”


In other words, we shouldn't focus on the past or things you can't control, we should focus on what we can control. We have to realize that life, death and riches are largely out of our control. All we have are our choices. The advice is almost existential. 

Of course, Zi Xia isn't an existentialist at all and he proves it with a VERY Confucian claim that if you are good, good things will surely follow. It's a hopeful and quite naive point that Confucius and his followers constantly make. It's possibly seen most clearly in 4:25:

"The Master said: “If you are virtuous, you will not be lonely. You will always have friends.”

Confucius had an almost unhealthy faith in the power of a good example or righteous character. When the right things were being done (by the right people)....things would fall into place for everyone.

 It was almost as close as the usual grounded Confucius gets to magical or religious thinking.  This quote is  from 16:2:

"The Master said: “When the Way (just government) prevails in the realm, then ritual, music and military campaigns are all initiated by the emperor. When the Way declines in the realm, then ritual, music and military campaigns are initiated by the nobles. When these things are initiated by the nobles, the ruling house will usually lose its power within ten generations. When these things are initiated by the high ministers, the ruling house will usually lose its power within five generations. When they are initiated by the lower officers, the ruling house will lose its power within three generations. When the Way prevails in the realm, the common people do not debate politics among themselves.”

All in all, I think Zi Xia gives good advice but I wouldn't go as far as Confucius in my faith that my good examples and choices will be rewarded. I do agree with the sentiment that if we focus on our choices and we work on building character, we will find more doors opening for us than if we don't.

Humans have always excelled when we focus on what we can do, not what we can't do. We need to follow Anna's advice from Frozen 2. Anna had it right, all we can do when things get tough is to "do the next right thing".

To be clear the movie is pretty okay but this song "Do the Next Right Thing" is amazing.

Yeah, I did it, I wedged a Frozen 2 and a The Fiddler on the Roof reference in a single blog post about Confucius. Life achievement unlocked!! Thank you Good Night!!!