66 Ancient Ideals
In Confucius’ thinking, veneration for the past and for the vir-
tuous ancestors may be even stronger. To live well, one must repeat
the best of what has come before. A man who wishes to be remem-
bered with res pect comes as close as possi ble in character and
action to his most virtuous forebears. He merges with them; his iden-
tity becomes indistinguishable from theirs. How far this is from the
hero’s wish to shine as no man ever has before. The hero wants to
be peerless, beyond compare. Achilles is little like Peleus, little like
Thetis. The only apt comparisons for Achilles are with Olympian
gods. Some few men may for a moment remind one of Achilles. But
Achilles reminds us of no other man.
Confucius fails—or rather Confucius succeeds by failing. He fi -
nally fi nds the offi ce he desires, advisor to a prince, but it does not
go well. The Master is far too candid. He will not tell the noble lord
what he wants to hear. If the noble lord demands a rationale for
increasing his wealth at the expense of the common people—if he
requires self- justifi cation or propaganda— then Confucius cannot
oblige him. He, like Socrates, believes that man’s fi rst obligation
to other men is to tell the truth.
Refl ective though he is, Confucius has no overt investment in
another, transcendental world. (Though some scholars have sug-
gested an implicit investment.) It is hardly possi ble to imagine him
propounding a myth of the cave. There is no pure sunlight, no pure
contemplation: for Confucius, only practical knowledge, tactics, re-
silience, modesty, fi lial piety, and grace.
But from these quiet virtues arises an ideal that shines through
Chinese culture and beyond for twenty- fi ve hundred years, the ideal
of the gentleman. The gentleman is sweet in temper and does not
seek his own advancement at the expense of others. He abjures war
except under conditions of the greatest necessity, and rather than
seeking—as Achilles’ father told him to do— for the fi rst place, he
compounds his honor by modesty. He lets others take the credit that