Confucius 孔子

Founder of Confucianism · 儒家创始人 · 551–479 BCE · Analects《论语》

Confucianism Ethics Statecraft

Core Proposition · 核心命题

吾道一以贯之。

"A single unifying thread runs through my Way." When asked what it was, his disciple answered: 忠恕 — do your utmost, and extend yourself to others. All moral reasoning starts from one's own heart and projects outward by analogy. Nothing is imposed from outside; everything is extended from within.

Mental Models · 思维原则

Principle 01

Extension 推己及人

Use yourself as the measuring instrument. Whatever you yourself do not desire, do not impose on others. This is not a commandment but an algorithm: input is your own felt experience, output is how to treat everyone else. Moral knowledge is always already available — you only need to run the projection.

Principle 02

Rectification of Names 正名

Language is infrastructure. When a title — father, ruler, minister — no longer matches the behavior it names, cooperation collapses not from malice but from semantic drift. 「名不正，则言不顺；言不顺，则事不成。」Fix the name first; conduct corrects itself.

Principle 03

The Mean 中庸

「过犹不及」— going beyond the mark is the same as falling short. The mean is not a compromise midpoint but the exact right point relative to each situation — a moving target, and the hardest one to hit. Courage overshoots into recklessness; generosity overshoots into waste. Precision is the virtue.

Principle 04

Learning × Reflection 学思并重

「学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆」— input without processing is bewilderment; processing without input is peril. The two must run as a coupled loop: study supplies the material, thought digests it into judgment. Neither alone produces knowledge.

Key Passage · 原文

「有一言而可以终身行之者乎？」子曰：「其恕乎！己所不欲，勿施于人。」

"Is there a single word that can guide a whole life?" The Master said: "Perhaps shu — reciprocity: what you yourself do not desire, do not impose on others."

Analects 15.24《论语·卫灵公》

Modern Mapping · 现代映射

Product Design · 产品设计

己所不欲，勿施于人 works as an operational filter: every feature ships only if the builder would personally tolerate it. The mechanism of extension replaces endless surveys — interrogate your own experience as a user before asking users what they want. Most dark patterns fail this test instantly: the designer would never accept them in a product they used themselves.

Organization · 组织管理

Rectification of Names as organizational hygiene: a title is a contract of expectations. When "owner" on the org chart is not the person actually making decisions, accountability evaporates — not from bad will, but from semantic drift. The Confucian diagnostic runs before any behavior fix: rewrite the name until it matches the reality again. 「君君，臣臣」— let the role be performed up to the meaning of its title.

Persuasion · 说服

Extension runs in reverse for persuasion: you cannot move others with your desires, only with theirs. 「己欲立而立人，己欲达而达人」— if you wish to stand, first help the other party stand. The persuader's first task is locating the counterpart's own "欲立" — what they already wish to become — and demonstrating that your proposal is the means to it.

Knowledge Work · 知识工作

The learning × reflection loop defends against the two modern failure modes: endless consumption without synthesis (feed-scrolling — 学而不思则罔, bewilderment) and endless opinion without input (hot takes — 思而不学则殆, peril). The operational rule: for every hour of consumption, an hour of writing against the material; for every opinion published, a source that can be cited.