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:

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!

87: Lessons from The Master: The Analects of Confucius

Made You Think

87: Lessons from The Master: The Analects of Confucius