This man has been an inspiration to me for as long as I can remember, so when I was asked to do a weekly thread, I thought it only fair to highlight his work!
Confucius - Biography
Confucius was born and died in the state of Lu. He lost his father at the age of three and grew up in straightened circumstances, under his mother's care. As a boy he liked to set up sacrificial vessels and to imitate the gestures of ritual. At the age of nineteen he married, and a son and two daughters were born to him. His relations with his wife and children were without cordiality. He was a large man of great physical strength.
At nineteen he entered the service of a noble family as superintendent of parks and herds. At thirty-two he was engaged in teaching the ancient ritual to a minister's sons. At thirty-three he went to Lo-yang, the imperial capital, to study the customs and traditions of the Chou Empire, which by then had actually split into numerous warring states of various sizes, and whose capital remained solely a religious center. On this occasion he is said to have visited Lao-tzu. When Confucius was thirty-four, the prince of Lu, threatened by powerful rivals among the local nobility, was forced to flee. Confucius accompanied him to a neighboring state. Here he heard music, learned how to play, and became so absorbed that he forgot to eat. Returning to Lu, he devoted the next fifteen years to his studies.
A few of his poems:
Sadness
[translation by C.E.R. Allen, 1891]
THE sun is ever full and bright,
The pale moon waneth night by night.
Why should this be?
My heart that once was full of light
Is but a dying moon to-night.
But when I dream of thee apart,
I would the dawn might lift my heart,
O sun, to thee.
Trysting Time
[translation by C.E.R. Allen, 1891]
I
A PRETTY girl at time o' gloaming
Hath whispered me to go and meet her
Without the city gate.
I love her, but she tarries coming.
Shall I return, or stay and greet her?
I burn, and wait.
II
Truly she charmeth all behooders,
'Tis she hath given me this jewel,
The jade of my delight;
But this red jewel-jade that smoulders,
To my desire doth add more fuel,
New charms to-night.
III
She has gathered with her lily fingers
A lily fiar and rare to see.
Oh! sweeter still the fragrance lingers
From the warm hand that gave it me.
The Soldier
[translation by C.E.R. Allen, 1891]
I CLIMBED the barren mountain,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the red-lit eaves of my father's home,
And I fancied that he sighed:
My son has gone for a soldier,
For a soldier night and day;
But my son is wise, and may yet return,
When the drums have died away.
I climbed the grass-clad mountain,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the rosy lights of a little room,
Where I thought my mother sighed:
My boy has gone for a soldier
He sleeps not day and night;
But my boy is wise, and may yet return,
Though the dead lie far from sight.
I climbed the topmost summit,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the garden roof where my brother stood,
And I fancied that he sighed:
My brother serves as a soldier
With his comrades night and day;
But my brother is wise, and may yet return,
Though the dead lie far away.