Summary
The passage discusses Confucius’ theory of cultivating one’s behavior toward family and society. It begins with the introduction of historical background of his time – the Spring and Autumn Period. It experienced a dramatic change of social system and prolonged chaos and fighting. As a result, the cultural tradition inherited from ancient times was corrupted. Confucius wanted to restore the great tradition abandoned (抛弃) by people and established harmonious social relationships among people. To realize this, Confucius proposed self-cultivation with the starting point from feelings to parents. The feelings are nourished and cultivated into family reverence. The love for parents extends to other people as one begins to
《论语》是儒家学派的经典著作 ( classics) 之一，该书记录了（records）孔子及其弟子的言行，传授儒家的主要思想（central theme）：仁、义 (righteousness)、礼、智，其中仁是儒家的核心价值观（kernel value）。仁是指爱父母和敬长兄，如果这种对家庭成员的情感伸延 (extend to) 到社会的其他人身上， 人与人之间和睦关系也就建立起来了。
The Analects is one of the Confucian classics. The book records the sayings and behaviours of Confucius and his disciples. It teaches the central theme of Confucianism including humaneness, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, of which humaneness is Confucius’ kernel value. Humaneness is taken as love for parents and respect for elder brothers. If the feelings for family members are extended to other people in the society, harmonious relationships among individuals will be built up. 慕课脚本
1、The Wisdom of Confucius discusses the most important school of Chinese philosophy— Confucianism — with the focus on its core concepts Ren and Li. Ren means goodness or benevolence and Li means ritual or propriety. Ren and Li were advocated by Confucius 2500 years ago for the purpose of restoring political order of Zhou Dynasty. The doctrine has exerted a great influence on Chinese culture ever since, from cultivating filial piety at home, to giving love to everybody, until keeping social and political order in a country. With Ren and Li, Chinese culture is characterized by harmony and equilibrium, building harmonious relationships
between human and nature, between any individuals, and keeping equilibrium socially, economically and politically. That is Confucius wisdom and that is the essence of traditional Chinese thinking.
在《道德经》中，老子建立了以“道”为核心的哲学体系。老子提出的“道”是“非常道”。他认为宇宙万物均起源于“道”， 道具有无为、相反、无形、无名、玄妙等特征。道家的许多原理(principles)已经成为中国人重要的理想准则(important ideals and norms), 对于中国文化发展形成了重大影响。
In the Dao De Jing, Laozi established a philosophy system centered on Dao. He refers Dao as invariable and constant Dao. He holds that Dao is the origin of the cosmos and that Dao is characterized by non-action, opposition, shapelessness, namelessness, obscurity, etc. Many Daoist principles have already been Chinese people’s important ideals and norms and have exerted a profound influence on the development of Chinese culture.
一般情况下，汉字是由十几种基本笔画构成的。笔画和大多数欧洲语言的字母作用类似，只是笔画之间无法构成“音节”。汉字有八个基本的笔画：点、横、折、竖、钩、提、撇、捺。
在一个小小的方形空间中，将笔画组合成字时，必然要采取数量不等的笔画以及各种各样的连接和排列方式，以求使字形易识而又简洁。于是在这方形空间里，各式笔画就采取了上下、左右、分合、交叉、穿插、重叠、堆积、包裹等组合方式。
Chinese characters, in general, are composed of a dozen basic strokes, which have similar functions to the letters of the Western languages. But they do not combine sounds into syllables. There are eight basic strokes: dot, horizontal stroke, turning stroke, vertical stroke, hook stroke, right-upward stroke, left-downward stroke and right-downward stroke.In a small square space, characters are composed of different strokes linked and arranged in various ways, thus they are easy to be recognized, and look neat. These strokes are placed in various positions in the square – upper or lower, left or right, separate or linked, crossed, going through, overlapping, piling up or
surrounding. (Para. 5)
一时礼毕，贾敬贾赦等便忙退出至荣府，专候与贾母行礼。尤氏上房地下，铺满红毡，当地放着象鼻三足泥鳅流金珐琅大火盆，正面炕上铺着新猩红毡子，设着大红彩绣云龙捧寿的靠背、引枕、坐褥，外另有黑狐皮的袱子搭在上面。 After this ceremony, ha Jing, bia She and the other men hurried to the Rong Mansion, where they waited to pay their respects to the Lady Dowager. She, however, now went to Madam You's sitting room, the floor of which was covered with a red carpet where stood a large gilded cloisonne brazier, its three legs in the form of elephant trunks. On the kang by the north wall were a new crimson rug and red silk back-rests and bolsters embroidered with 'Dragons in the Clouds' designs and the character 'Longevity.' On it, too, were spread a black fox-skin and a big white fox-skin mattress.