郭律师的非正常更18：How to Become a Gentleman

下文是郭律师今天在Toastmaster Club（土司马斯特演讲俱乐部）进行的演讲，试图传播中华文化。这一演讲是基于高阶讲义（advanced manual）《介绍性演讲》（Speech to Inform），第三讲《演示性演讲》（the demonstration talk）。

Speech to Inform, #3: The Demonstration Talk

By Chuck Guo, CC

Madam Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and Distinguished Guests,

How to become a gentleman? It seems that a man can be a gentleman if he has sexual appeals, and is nice to the ladies. But that is not what my speech is about. This question, how to become agentleman, is the central question to Confucian, that the entire school of Confucianism is built to answer the simple question, how to become a junzi, a gentleman.

To whom is unfamiliar with the name, Confucian is a famous Chinese philosopher, who is equivalent to Aristotle. His teaching, the Confucianism, became the ruling doctrine of every Chinese Empire.

In ancient Chinese, the literal meaning of gentleman is highborn. But Confucianism does not consider gentlemen come exclusively from highborn, that a commoner, or even lowborn could be enlightened, could become a gentleman if she or he sets her or his mind to do it. Eventhough it is the Founding Fathers who first wrote that “all men are created equal”, we the Chinese practiced equality in ancient days, via a uniformed exam to select bureaucrats from the mess.

I diverted. So how to become a gentleman?

Firstly, a gentleman needs to push himself. The ancient mystery book Yi, the Book of Change, reads that “the celestial bodies moves ceaselessly, the enlightened alike should exertthemselves tirelessly”. If you still remember the literal meaning of Kong Fu I talked about, which is not martial arts, but the time you spend working on something. The more time you spent on improving yourself, a better gentleman you will become.

Then, how should a gentleman improve himself? The ancient book Daxue, which means the Greatest Knowledge, teaches that a gentleman should gain “the great knowledge of morality, of self-improvement, and of greatness”. The Book of Greatest Knowledge dictates that,

“if one wants to gain the greatest knowledge, he should be a good leader first; that if one wants to be a good leader, he should be a nice husband and parent first; that if one wants to be a nice husband and parent, he should strive to be a solid individual first; that if one wants to be a solid individual, he should practice good moral behaviors first; that if one wants to practice good moral behaviors, he should fix his mind on it first; that if one wants to fix his mind to practice good moral behaviors, he should gain more knowledge first; that if one wants to gain moreknowledge, he should study the laws of the universe and all the things within first.”

The Book of Greatest Knowledge further says that,

“If one learns the laws of the universe and all the things within, he could gain more knowledge; if one gains more knowledge, he could fix his mind to practice good moral behaviors; if one fixes his mind to practice good moral behaviors, he could practice good moral behaviors; if one practices good moral behaviors, he could become a solid individual; if one is a solid individual, he could become a nice husband and parent; if one is a nice husband and parent, he could be a good leader; if one is agood leader, he could gain the greatest knowledge of morality, self-improvement and greatness.”

Though titled as “how to become agentleman”, I believe those rules applies to every role and every profession. If you want to be a doctor, you need to study how human body functions, which gains you more knowledge and requires you to be abided by the moral oath of “do-no-harm”; with further practice, you will become a leader of doctors, which puts you closer to the greatest knowledge of becoming an enlightened gentleman. So are cowboys, athletes, city-planners, filmmakers, lawyers and toastmasters. Applying Kong Fu, applying the greatest knowledge of morality, self-improvement and greatness in your life and profession, that will make you a gentleman.

At the end of the speech, I think I might make a mistake translating junzi. Itwould be more appropriate to translate junzi to the enlightened, instead of gentleman.

Thank you, Madam Toastmasters.

文中引用了《易》和《大学》，翻译“格物致知，正心诚意，修齐治平”那两段真是费劲。最终的效果疑似并没有那么好。欢迎大家提出批评建议。

请在不击碎手机屏幕的前提下，猛击“阅读原文”，查看维基百科词条《大学》（Great Learning）。

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