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THE FIVE VIRTUES


Modern culture places huge emphasis on training to be physically fit. Confucius emphasised the importance of training to be morally good. This sounds deeply strange, reminding us of how much our culture overlooks the pursuit of ethical development. Confucius identified five central virtues that make us good:


Compassion (ren), 

Ritual Propriety (li),

Justice (yi),

Knowledge (zhi) 

Integrity (xin).


Crucially, Confucius felt that these five had to be worked on over a whole lifetime. He told his followers: ‘At fifteen, I had my mind bent on intellectual learning. At thirty, I was busy and practical. At forty, I had doubts. At fifty, I started to learn. At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I had learnt to follow the five virtues.’ In other words, training to be good takes a lot of time. No wonder Confucius revered old people; their skin might not be as supple or their faces as pretty but – he argued – they stand a slightly higher chance of having learnt to be a little more virtuous than the younger and less experienced.

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