Shi Shuo
Dynasty: Tang Dynasty
Author: Han Yu
Original text:
Scholars of ancient times must There is a teacher. A teacher is the one who preaches the truth, receives karma, and resolves doubts. People are not born with knowledge, how can they be free from confusion? If you are confused and do not follow the teacher, it is confusion, and you will never understand it. Those who were born before me, they heard the Tao before me, and I learned from them; those born after me, they heard the Tao before me, and I learned from them. My teacher, do you know who was born to me one year or another? Therefore, there is neither high nor low, neither long nor short. Where the Tao exists, the teacher exists.
Sigh! It’s been a long time since teachers’ teachings were passed on! It’s hard to be free from confusion! The ancient saints were also far away from others, and they still asked if they were teachers. Today's people are also far away from the saints, and they are ashamed to learn from their teachers. Therefore, the saint will benefit the saint, and the fool will benefit the fool. Is this why saints are saints and fools are fools? If you love your son, you will choose a teacher and teach him; if you are concerned about your son, you will be ashamed of the teacher and confused. The teacher of the boy, who teaches the readers a book and then learns its sentences, is not what I call someone who teaches him the way and solves his confusion. I don’t know how to read a sentence, I don’t understand it when I’m confused, maybe I’m a teacher, or maybe I’m not good at it. I haven’t seen the clarity from elementary school but great legacy. A man of witchcraft, medicine, music, and craftsmanship, he is not ashamed to be a physiognomist. The clan of scholar-bureaucrats would gather in groups and laugh at those who said "master" or "disciple". When asked, he said: "He is similar to that year, and the way is similar. A low position is shameful, and a high official is close to flattery." Woohoo! The way of a teacher can no longer be known. Gentlemen despise a man who is a man of witchcraft, medicine, music and craftsmanship, but now his wisdom is beyond his reach. How strange that is!
The sage is the teacher of impermanence. Confucius studied under Tanzi, Changhong, Xiang and Laodan. The disciples of Tanzi were not as wise as Confucius. Confucius said: When three people are walking together, they must have me as their teacher. Therefore, the disciple does not have to be inferior to the master, and the master does not have to be better than the disciple. There is a priority in learning the Tao, and there is a specialization in the art, that's all.
Zi Pan, a seventeen-year-old son of the Li family, was fond of ancient prose and was familiar with all the classics and biographies of the six arts. Yu Jiaqi was able to practice the ancient way and taught him as a teacher.