87: Lessons from The Master: The Analects of Confucius

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:

• Desnudo Coffee in Austin
• Johnathan Bi and David Perell's Girard Lecture series link
• Hardcore History: Wrath of the Khans
• Hardcore History: The Death Throes of the Republic
• Ancient Chinese religions
• Dolphin birthing center TikTok

Books mentioned:

• The Clouds by Aristophanes
• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr

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!