Nevertheless, fan Chi was once rebuked by Confucius. On the face of it, the harshness of the reprimand is better than that of Zaiyu's "rotten wood can't be carved" and "walls of dung can't be built.". "Rotten wood" and "dung" are just metaphors, while fan Chi is denounced as the antonym of "gentleman", the "villain" that Confucius despised most. The reason is that fan Chi wants to learn agricultural technology. First, he said that he wanted to learn how to grow grain. Confucius was surprised and told him politely, "I'm not as good as an old farmer." Then fan Chi said that he wanted to learn how to grow vegetables. Confucius was a little angry and told him, "I'm not as good as a vegetable farmer." After fan Chi left, Confucius was very angry and called him a "villain".
Fan Chi wanted to learn agricultural technology. Why did Confucius call him a villain? This is because Confucius believed that in the situation at that time, if the rulers knew how to advocate rites and music, pay attention to morality and abide by credit, the people in all directions would help the old and the young to come to work, and there was no need to learn to grow crops and vegetables. In other words, Confucius' school running is to cultivate management talents who spread benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith to the rulers. It is not to carry out vocational and technical education, cultivate specialized technical talents, let alone cultivate farmers. So why did fan Chi want to learn to grow food and vegetables? Liu Baonan, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, put forward an explanation: because in the spring and Autumn period, the hereditary system was adopted by Qing officials, and the election system of selecting talents was abandoned; most of the talents had no position, so they had no salary and could not support their families, so they had to find their own way to survive. Qian Mu, a modern scholar, put forward another explanation, saying that fan Chi wanted to follow the example of Shennong and Houji and "teach the people by farming", that is, he got the support of the people by mastering agricultural technology and spreading it to the people, and finally achieved the goal of educating the people.
Both of these explanations are reasonable. However, from the words of Confucius, the direct reason for fan Chi's learning was to solve the problem of labor shortage. The spring and Autumn period is a military period, with frequent wars, incessant wars, sharp population decline, and a large number of land without farming, resulting in a serious problem of food shortage. Fan Chi's solution is that intellectuals put down their positions and engage in agricultural labor. It is a bit similar to letting the educated youth go to the countryside, the intellectuals go to cadre schools, and go to the countryside to engage in agricultural labor. Confucius' solution is to improve the political environment, attract people from foreign countries, increase the population and solve the labor problem. Fan Chi's method has a high ideological level, but it does not conform to the standard of pragmatism. It is equivalent to turning himself into a manual laborer, and can only solve the problems of one person or one family. Confucius's method, in fact, is to join the ruling class, and the purpose is to solve the food problem of a country. In a word, Confucius' pursuit is quite lofty.
Fan Chi was just impulsive. After thinking about it, he didn't insist on the road of "saving the world through agriculture". That is to say, I accepted the teacher's advice. Therefore, apart from being called a villain by Confucius this time, fan Chi recorded in the Analects of Confucius is a regular disciple. He asked Confucius about "knowledge (wisdom)" and "benevolence", among which "benevolence" was asked three times, and Confucius patiently answered it. One day, when I was traveling with my teacher to pray for rain, I asked Confucius for the meaning of "advocating morality, cultivating morality and distinguishing doubts", which was praised by Confucius. On another occasion, when fan Chi was driving for Confucius, Confucius took the initiative to tell him how he answered Meng Yizi's question of "filial piety" and explained it.
Su Dongpo, who is fond of joking, said to Confucius that "there are so many gentlemen." to the second couplet of "villain fan xuye", he mocked Qin Shaoyou, a bearded Qin Guan. A regular Confucius disciple, because he asked Confucius a wonderful question, because his name was interesting, he was firmly remembered by later generations. However, few people know that he can keep calm and brave when he is in danger. From fan Chi's story, I can't help feeling: the reputation behind people is really unpredictable!
