In the fifth episode of This Is the Way, we discuss Confucius’s autobiography as found in Analects 2.4, one of the most famous passages in the Analects and a rich resource for reflection on the process of moral self-cultivation. Among the many topics we explore: what Confucius meant by being “free of doubts” and “understanding Heaven’s Mandate,” and the relationship between practicing and understanding the Confucian Way. We discuss how traditional commentaries and commentators have interpreted some of the most interesting and disputed lines, and puzzle over the philosophical concept of ‘wholeheartedness.’

[Stage one: preparing for enlightenment]

At fifteen, I set my heart-mind on learning;

at thirty, I stood straight;

[Stage two: achieving understanding]

at forty, I became free of doubts;

at fifty, I understood Heaven’s Mandate;
[Stage three: achieving wholeheartedness]

at sixty, my ear was compliant;

at seventy, I could follow my heart-mind’s desires without overstepping the bounds.

Analects 2.4
Philip J. Ivanhoe, Confucian Moral Self-Cultivation (where he writes that for Xunzi, the practice of the Way “runs far ahead of one’s understanding of it,” p. 96)
Analects 1.15 (grinding and polishing)
Analects 8.9 (the ordinary people can be made to follow it but not to understand it)
Analects 2.15 (thinking without learning…learning without thinking…)
Analects 9.30 (learning to apply some ritual or rule with appropriate “discretion” indicates a very high level of epistemic achievement)
Dasan 茶山(1762–1836) (a.k.a. Jeong Yak-yong) — his commentary on Analects 2.4 is translated in this book
Analects 9.12 (students attend to Confucius as though he were their lord and not just their teacher)
Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200) — his commentary on Analects 2.4 is translated in this book
Justin’s article on “getting it oneself” (zide 自得)
T’oegye 退溪 (1501–1570) (a.k.a. Yi Hwang 李滉)
Analects 14.24 (learning for one’s own sake vs. learning for the sake of impressing others)