Pan Junjie Reflected on the Talk Show “Kongzi and His Students”

After watching the TV talk show “孔子和他的弟子们,” our Chinese class students reflected on the following questions:

1) Among 孔子的弟子中 （e.g. 子路、颜回、子贡等）, who is your favorite, why?

2) Which quote from the 论语 you’ve learned strikes you the most? Why? No repeats from your classmates.

3) What was 孔子 devoted to do in his later life? or, what are the teaching philosophy of 孔子？

4) Please comment on the tragic death of 子路.

5) 为什么孔子最喜欢颜回？

6）Why did merchants have the lowest social stutas in the traditional Chinese society? or, Why 子贡 was considered the smartest student?

Pan Junjie –

1) Among 孔子的弟子中，子路 is my favorite because he shows his respect towards Confucius for with him for a long period of time. In the end, his relationship with Confucius are more like friends than teacher student relationship.

2) “三年无改于父之道，可谓孝矣。” is the quote that strikes me the most because when my grandfather passed away, my dad was told that he had to wear a ribbon on his shirt for 3 years to show respect and to remember what my grandfather taught him. This quote strikes me because this has been said by Confucius a long time ago and how it became a tradition that people follows.

3) The teaching philosophy of Confucius are all the words that was said to his students and everything that was taught to them. So, when Confucius passed away, his students created 论语 based on what their teacher taught them.

4) When 子路 died, he was surrounded by enemies and even though he know that he was going to die, he wanted to put his helmet on to show Confucius his respect and how he believed that he should died neatly.

5) Confucius liked 颜回 because he viewed him as the person that he will pass on his teachings to because he thought that  颜回 had very similar characteristics as Confucius himself.

6) 子贡 was considered the smartest student because he knows how to make money and how he pays for basically everything that Confucius needs.