Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode we discuss The Analects of Confucius and virtuous living.
We cover a wide range of topics including:
- Confucian virtues
- The differences between Confucianism and Taoism
- The value of friendships between the young and their elders
- How to govern through example in a Confucian way
- Transmitting the values of ancients to contemporary times
- Ancient Chinese religions
And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode.
Mentioned in the show:
Books mentioned:
People mentioned:
- Rumi (24:35)
- Richard Rohr (48:26)
- Johnathan Bi and David Perell (54:00)
- Graham Hancock (1:14:51)
Show Topics:
(0:00) Feedback about the Made You Think title – time for a possible rebrand?
(1:44) Tangent Fuel Coffee and Desnudo Coffee in Austin
(8:18) TikTok SEO's early days and Nat's experience on BookTok
(12:40) About Confucius
(15:45) Socrates, Confucius, and Buddha lived in the same 100 years
(18:12) Confucianism vs. Taoism
(20:28) The meaning of Books 10 and 18 in Analects
(23:20) Confucianism vs. Stoicism
(24:35) Confucius or Rumi? Adil reads quotes from each and Nat and Neil guess the author
(31:34) The Golden Rule appearing in Analects - twice!
(33:54): How to retain an author's original meaning while translating their work, especially when translating poetry or religious texts
(36:35) How The Clouds by Aristophanes contirbuted to Socrates’ death
(38:00) The meaning of filial piety and how Confucius prescribes mourning for one’s parents
(42:03) How our society is stratified by age and the difficulties in making friends with people much older
(48:26) Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
(52:20) The narcissism of small differences and Girard
(54:55) Governing through virtue and example
(59:15) Genghis Khan breaking up groups with homogenous sets of beliefs – TK LINK Genghis Khan series
(1:00:03) Parallels between the decline of the Roman Republic and the US – TK LINK Rome series
(1:05:10) Unexpected appearance of the word “God” in the text, ancient Chinese folk religions, matrilineal cultures
(1:10:48) Confucius's views on friendship and how to choose your friends
(1:11:47) Confucius transmitting values from earlier periods which were abandoned by his contemporaries
(1:14:51) Graham Hancock interviews and conspiracies
(1:20:15) “The pine and the cypress are the last to lose their leaves”
(1:24:00) Final notes and wrap-up
If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes and tell a friend. As always, let us know if you have any book recommendations! You can say hi to us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS, @adilmajid, @nateliason and share your thoughts on this episode.
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Thanks for listening. See you next time!
