孔子的晚年心境应该是相当痛苦的。56岁后，孔子离开鲁国周游列国，希望再次找到伸展政治抱负的机会。但是，他碰到的是冷漠对待，有时还陷入困境和遇到危险。
孔子69岁回到了鲁国。回来不久，他最亲近的人连续死亡。首先，他的儿子去世，接着是得意弟子颜回。公元前481年，司马牛悲惨死去，子路亦于公元前480年死于卫国的内乱。
但孔子对自己的死亡似乎平静以待。有一次，他病得很严重，子路问可不可以为他祈祷。孔子回答：‘我自己已经祈祷很久了。’意思是说不必祈祷了，他平时的所作所为就是对天的一种祷告了。
孔子晚年主要的工作就是教书，把他的思想和智慧传授给与日俱增的学生，并通过五经（包括易经）来传递他的思想。孔子和这些述作的联系，使到这些经书成为‘儒学经典’，而孔子本身也被敬为教师、历史学者、伦理哲学家、文学学者，和其他无数在中国文化史上著名人物的精神导师。
孔子应该最清楚什么是‘不逾矩’，因为他就是道德标准的述作者。难怪他会说：‘七十而从心所欲，不逾矩’。
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The last couple of years of Confucius' life must have been bitter ones for him. At the age of 56, he left the state of Lu to travel to other states in order to see if he could advise other rulers to put his principles into practice. However, he met instead with indifference and, occasionally, severe hardship and danger.
He returned to Lu at the age of 69. Shortly after his return, he met with a number of deaths among his close associates. First his son died, and then his favourite disciple Yen Hui. Sima Niu, had a tragic death in 481 BC, and Zilu was killed in the civil war of Wei in 480 BC.
However, Confucius seemed to face his own death calmly. Once when he was very ill, Zilu asked if he could pray for him. The master responded, "My praying has been for a long time." What he meant was that the deeds of his life had been his prayer to Heaven, there was no need to pray for him.
Confucius spent the last years of his life teaching, spreading his thoughts and wisdom to his growing number of disciples and transmitting his words through a set of books called Five Classics, which include Yijing, the Book of Changes. Confucius' traditional association with these works led them and related texts to be revered as the “Confucian Classics” and made Confucius himself the spiritual ancestor of later teachers, historians, moral philosophers, literary scholars, and countless others whose lives and works figure prominently in Chinese intellectual history.
Confucius must have known clearly the boundaries of what is right since the moral standards were interpreted and set by him. No wonder he said, ‘At seventy I could follow the desires of my mind without overstepping the boundaries of what is right.’
孔子69岁回到了鲁国。回来不久，他最亲近的人连续死亡。首先，他的儿子去世，接着是得意弟子颜回。公元前481年，司马牛悲惨死去，子路亦于公元前480年死于卫国的内乱。
但孔子对自己的死亡似乎平静以待。有一次，他病得很严重，子路问可不可以为他祈祷。孔子回答：‘我自己已经祈祷很久了。’意思是说不必祈祷了，他平时的所作所为就是对天的一种祷告了。
孔子晚年主要的工作就是教书，把他的思想和智慧传授给与日俱增的学生，并通过五经（包括易经）来传递他的思想。孔子和这些述作的联系，使到这些经书成为‘儒学经典’，而孔子本身也被敬为教师、历史学者、伦理哲学家、文学学者，和其他无数在中国文化史上著名人物的精神导师。
孔子应该最清楚什么是‘不逾矩’，因为他就是道德标准的述作者。难怪他会说：‘七十而从心所欲，不逾矩’。
.
The last couple of years of Confucius' life must have been bitter ones for him. At the age of 56, he left the state of Lu to travel to other states in order to see if he could advise other rulers to put his principles into practice. However, he met instead with indifference and, occasionally, severe hardship and danger.
He returned to Lu at the age of 69. Shortly after his return, he met with a number of deaths among his close associates. First his son died, and then his favourite disciple Yen Hui. Sima Niu, had a tragic death in 481 BC, and Zilu was killed in the civil war of Wei in 480 BC.
However, Confucius seemed to face his own death calmly. Once when he was very ill, Zilu asked if he could pray for him. The master responded, "My praying has been for a long time." What he meant was that the deeds of his life had been his prayer to Heaven, there was no need to pray for him.
Confucius spent the last years of his life teaching, spreading his thoughts and wisdom to his growing number of disciples and transmitting his words through a set of books called Five Classics, which include Yijing, the Book of Changes. Confucius' traditional association with these works led them and related texts to be revered as the “Confucian Classics” and made Confucius himself the spiritual ancestor of later teachers, historians, moral philosophers, literary scholars, and countless others whose lives and works figure prominently in Chinese intellectual history.
Confucius must have known clearly the boundaries of what is right since the moral standards were interpreted and set by him. No wonder he said, ‘At seventy I could follow the desires of my mind without overstepping the boundaries of what is right.’
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