“What century is this? Who still reads the Four Books, studies the Analects, or dreams of becoming a junzi?”
These days, it seems that random violence is ever more common and that students, anxious about the future, have become less empathetic and more self-centered. But a group of parents and teachers is fighting to turn back the tide, pushing for a return to traditional virtues and encouraging children to become “humble junzi” who put others first.
Some 255 third- to sixth-graders from around Taiwan and abroad gathered at the Bliss and Wisdom Foundation’s campus in Gukeng Township, Yunlin County, this past summer for a seven-day course on how to be a junzi.
What is a junzi?
The junzi is a Confucian ideal, that philosophy’s vision of an exemplary person. But what exactly does that entail? What distinguishes a junzi from the run-of-the-mill, petty person?
Confucius said: “A junzi is concerned with what is right, a petty person with profit.” (Analects, 4.16)
Confucius said: “A junzi cultivates the good in people, and does not cultivate the bad. A petty person does the opposite.” (Analects, 12.16)
Confucius said: “A junzi seeks within himself. A petty person seeks within others.” (Analects 15.21)
Huang Zhuchai, Bliss and Wisdom’s head of Life Education, assembled the junzi classes. She says that the seven-day summer junzi program puts a modern spin on the Six Arts, reimagining the traditional rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and mathematics as etiquette, singalongs, organic agriculture, tai chi, penmanship, and recitation of the classics. Built on the idea of educating through play, the program seeks to cultivate the junzi virtues of warmth, benevolence, respect, frugality, and selflessness in the children who participate.
Take Day 4’s penmanship class, for example. Teacher Lai Yingda explains each stroke in the four-character expression “zhi zai junzi” (“the intent to be a junzi”), then sets the children to work copying the phrase.
An observer can’t help but wonder how penmanship is connected to becoming a junzi.
“There’s an old saying: ‘The handwriting reflects the person.’” Lai says that the habitual use of computers and mobile devices has resulted in children who don’t typically write very well. He believes that they should learn good penmanship for its many benefits, which include the development of focus and patience, as well as self-control and calmness. He says that copying out passages from the classics also fosters respect for those works. Today, as the children write and rewrite the phrase “zhi zai junzi,” they observe, think, cogitate, and revise as they go. The repetition unconsciously carves the phrase into their hearts and minds, transforming it into a desire and an aspiration.
Filial piety and benevolence
The “Fundamentals of Filial Piety and Humaneness” course develops the idea that filial piety is the basis for good character and the achievement of benevolence.
Anyone can talk about reaching out to children and bringing them to a deeper understanding of such things, but actually doing so requires serious thought and planning.
Zou Yuxiu, a teacher at the camp, uses short videos to illustrate key principles. “Film holds their attention better than lectures,” she says.
Zou screens two videos, walking children back through familiar events from their own lives to help them understand their parents’ selfless efforts on their behalf. The first video focuses on how difficult pregnancy was for their mothers. The second video depicts a situation familiar to many of them: a child demanding payment for doing household chores. The note with which the mother replies to the child in the film offers them food for thought: “Your mother does everything for you at no charge. She bore you for nine months at no charge. She changed your diapers at no charge. She washes your clothes and cooks your meals at no charge....” By this point, most of the children are looking rather shamefaced.
At the end, the teacher announces that their parents have arranged gifts for them. While the children sit there with dubious expressions, the guidance counselor distributes letters from their parents. The kids, in the midst of several days away from home for the first time in their lives, are profoundly moved by the letters, with some reading them through their tears.
Chen Wanxuan, a sixth-grader about to enter middle school, wipes her eyes and shyly remarks: “I’m really touched!”
“I came because my mother wanted me to.” Huang Ziting adds that she too was touched by her mother’s letter. “She says I’ll be a beacon, and will teach them what I’ve learned when I get home again.”
Grandpa Confucius’ wisdom
Established in 1997, the Bliss and Wisdom Foundation’s objective is to reestablish Confucian morality and spread traditional culture. To that end, it offers classes on the Confucian classics and moral cultivation, arranges courses for young people, and holds summer and winter camps. Since its inception, the foundation has provided training to more than 120,000 young people.
This year’s first attempt at a junzi course was inspired by concerns about the state of society today.
“Education is the crux on which societies rise or fall,” says Huang Zhuchai. “It is crucial that we cultivate a younger generation that feels gratitude and wants to give back to society.”
“Young people are our hope for the future.” Huang, who handles curriculum planning, believes that the problem with young people today is that they have no goals, and don’t know why they are studying. She argues that Confucianism is neither pedantic nor trite, but rather vibrant and alive. “Confucian culture is a shining beacon that illuminates and solves problems.”
The varied classes on the course schedule are very different from those of more typical summer and science camps. Junzi campers begin their day with “Dancing to the Crowing of the Rooster” at dawn, followed by “Scudding Clouds, Flowing Water Tai Chi,” “Booming Chinese Drums,” “Fun with Planting Vegetables,” and “Poems Old and New.” They end it with baths, chores, and bed, having spent an entire day learning in a manner reminiscent of ancient times.
Ye Jiazhen, who runs the camp, is the head of Bliss and Wisdom’s Youth Education and Development section. He notes that different children tend to enjoy different aspects of the day, with some preferring the tai chi, others the farming, and still others the Chinese drumming. He adds that regardless of the kids’ individual preferences, you can’t help but be amazed by the sight of the group of them—all away from home for the first time, washing their own clothes for the first time, and possibly even encountering Confucianism for the first time—growing up.
Planting seeds
But do children truly yearn to become the humble junzi the camp hopes to make them?
When camp teachers surveyed their students, they found that more than half had come because their parents had told them to. In other words, it was the parents’ desire that their children become junzi, not the kids’.
“At first, I didn’t want to come. But once I got here, it was a lot of fun.” Fifth-grader Lin Jiayin says that there are interesting new classes every day, and that she really enjoyed her first experience playing Chinese drums. “The music isn’t written on a five-line musical staff; it’s actually words.”
Liu Zhenlian is only ten years old, but already a thinker. He explains, “I came here to learn to be independent and to reflect on the good and bad in me in hopes of becoming a junzi.”
“Junzi think about other people. They are responsible and conscientious,” says Wang Cheng, sounding very adult-like. “I have many faults that the guidance counselor will help me correct.” Like many other young boys, Wang also likes to practice tai chi. “The teacher says that you have to make each move from a stable foundation, and that you can keep practicing and learning until you’re 100 years old.”
Have the seven days of training made the children turn over a new leaf?
Zhang Mingren, a counselor who has closely interacted with the kids all week, says that some of the 17 boys he oversaw arrived cursing, fidgety and impatient. But they’ve gradually begun to settle down and enjoy themselves. “The kids’ behavior has changed a bit at a time. You can see the progress.”
On the other hand, “You don’t become a junzi in just a week.” Huang Zhuchai says that when the classes are over and the kids return to the real world, things will naturally get muddled. You just have to hope that the seed you’ve planted in their hearts will blossom someday.
A surprise letter from a parent is especially moving for a child away from home for the first time.
A surprise letter from a parent is especially moving for a child away from home for the first time.
The pounding of Chinese drums reminds students to become helpful, humble junzi. (courtesy of Bliss and Wisdom Foundation)
Campers harvest sunflowers and sweet potato leaves from the field, learning at first hand the labor that goes into farming, and sense of achievement that comes out. (courtesy of Bliss and Wisdom Foundation)
