Farming and gardening
Critics have often attacked Confucius for stymieing China’s economic and technological progress, citing the apparent disdain for practical skills like agriculture that he demonstrates in Chapter 4 of Book 13 of the Analects. Here is the offending passage:
Fan Chi asked to learn about farming. Confucius said: “You would be better off asking an old farmer.” Fan Chi asked to learn about gardening. Confucius said: “You would be better off asking an old gardener.” After Fan Chi left, Confucius said: “What a small-minded man! If a ruler loves ritual, the people will not dare to be disrespectful. If a ruler loves rightness, the people will not dare to be disobedient. If a ruler loves trustworthiness, the people will not dare to be deceitful. If such a ruler existed, people would flock to him from everywhere with their children strapped to their backs. Why bother to learn about farming?”
樊遲請學稼，子曰：「吾不如老農。」請學為圃，曰：「吾不如老圃。」樊遲出，子曰：「小人哉，樊須也！上好禮，則民莫敢不敬；上好義，則民莫敢不服；上好信，則民莫敢不用情。夫如是，則四方之民，襁負其子而至矣；焉用稼！」
Confucius envisioned the role of the rulers and educated elite as nurturing a moral environment conducive to societal harmony, rather than developing practical skills. As long as a state was governed in a virtuous manner, he believed, the common people would be happy to carry out the hard manual labor required to feed and clothe the population.
Despite the sniffiness of his tone, Confucius had a valid point in telling his follower Fan Chi to consult people with practical expertise in agriculture. His own lack of knowledge about the subject made him the last person in the world to ask about tilling the land!
Some scholars suggest Confucius might have been subtly cautioning Fan Chi against the nascent proto-Daoist primitivist movement, which consisted of disillusioned scholars who sought to escape urban corruption by retreating to a simple life in the countryside. Confucius saw this as a shirking of elite responsibilities, a view he articulates in encounters described in 18.6 and 18.7 of the Analects.
Confucius naturally condemned such behavior, seeing it as a betrayal of the responsibilities of the elite. You can find descriptions of encounters with figures from this movement in 18.6 and 18.7 of the Analects.
However, Confucius’s emphasis on moral governance led him to overlook the critical roles officials and gentry played in managing essential infrastructure like roads, irrigation, and flood control. No matter how enlightened its ruler, no state can thrive on virtue alone!
Related Links
Leadership Lessons from Confucius: achieve the greatest impact
The Analects of Confucius Book 13 New English Translation
