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Thursday, December 26, 2013

Bit by Bit - Chapter 25, Part 16

Trey Smith

Confucius said to the Grand Historiographers Ta T'ao, Po Ch'ang-ch'ien, and Hsi Wei, "Duke Ling of Wei drank wine and wallowed in pleasure, paying no heed to the government of the state; he went hunting and gaming with nets and stringed arrows, ignoring his obligations to the other feudal lords. How then does he come to be called Duke Ling? "

Ta T'ao said, "It fitted the facts."

~ Burton Watson translation ~
Speaking of rationalizations, we can turn ANYBODY into a duke, king or celebrity. We simply look the other way when it comes to all those nasty attributes that might belie such a distinction.

Look at the world today. We have created "stars" who we worship out of numbskulls who appear on "Reality TV"!

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

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