Alo and De Piety #80
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 30, 2018
Alo: It had taken me months to discover what 'filial piety' implied... the ancients did not explain from an inside point of view... the words were only from an external point of view, which made little sense to me. Now that you also have found the meaning, are you comfortable with what the ancients pointed to?
Yan: Yes... it does make sense now, and, perhaps, it was best for the ancient words to not speak of the inner qualities... too many people would memorize the words, and then claim that they know what filial piety is.
Alo: One of my own difficulties was that I had already read outsiders' translations, and so it was natural that the translations' words had stuck in my mind, and caused me to too easily think the outsiders' words when translating ancient words. All known outsiders' translations, greatly harm all readers...
Yan: Agreed... and each time I find a meaning on my own, I then more appreciate your not having told me of the meanings. But several times I have questioned the possibility that the ancient authors might not have been aware of the inner qualities... if the ancients had known of inner qualities, then surely the ancients would have at least mentioned a few, but... I saw none.
Alo: It is reason for concern... it is similar to the outsiders' philosophies and global religion... the outsiders never, literally never speak of positive emotions... literally never in the thousands of outsider writings that I have seen. The stark absence of positive emotions is undeniable proof that the people who believe in the philosophies and global religion do not have positive emotions, nor know what positive emotions might be.
Yan: I had seen that also... it was disturbing to me, that the believers in the global religion would create a list of all known emotions within all known people, and yet the list never included good emotions. To me, the lists told me that the believers are cruel people... mean, hateful, spiteful, self-absorbed, self-worshipping, callous... I cannot imagine any other conclusion...
Alo: And there, the outsiders' translations of ancient words were written by people who believe in the global religion... it is, therefore, expected that the translations would reflect a similar coldness and ignorance as the outsiders' own hearts...
Yan: Agreed... unfortunately agreed. But now that I have a suitable interpretation of what filial piety implies, I can now relate that interpretation to what I have observed in other people... and, I find filial piety to be all but an unknown in this nation, although, I have indeed witnessed filial piety in a few outsider individuals... they were beautiful people... very beautiful. Also, I can now also contrast the ancient idea of piety to the modern idea of piety... the differences, are strong.
Alo: Yes... it also took me a long time to discover the differences. As a child, I had always heard the modern word of 'pious' to imply a religious thing... composed of religious ideas, and regulated by religious commandments... and since I never witnessed a person being 'pious' outside of a religion, then I assumed that piety could only infer a religious behavior, and, a very poor one at that.
Yan: Oh, yes, I was similar with the word 'righteousness', and I still have trouble discerning what righteousness could be without it being connected to a religion. When I see the 'righteousness' word in the ancient texts, I stumble, hesitate, and then attempt to discern what the ancient word might have implied. I still have trouble translating the ancient word...
Alo: Me too... and, years ago, during a time that I was attempting to better myself by using existing knowledge, I had considered the idea of becoming righteous... the idea seemed reasonable at the time, because, people often said that righteousness is a high achievement. However, when I divided the outward behavior by what would be required of inner qualities, I continued to land upon some of the ingredients being based upon following an ideology... and, so, to me, I dropped the idea of becoming righteous, because, within the modern idea of the word, I would also have to include inner ingredients of vengeance, anger, coldness to other people, and injustice to other people, all while blindly following a teaching to be violent towards other people. And so, to me, since righteousness could not harmonize with love, compassion, caring, kindness, modesty, gentleness, nor any other positive ingredient, then I fully dropped the idea of righteousness as being worthy in my own life.
Yan: Then, might the idea of filial piety be close to the idea of righteousness? Perhaps an ancient synonym? We already know that no dictionary of modern words can possibly offer a rational translation of ancient words, because, all modern words use synonyms that the dictionary-makers know, and, since dictionary-makers only know the words of the global ideology, then it is not possible for the dictionaries to possess accurate words. But, what if, what if we contrasted ancient piety with ancient righteousness? How close would they be?
Alo: Not too close, although they do share some ingredients. The way that I chose, was to weigh how the words were given in sentences, and how the words related to the sentences' scenarios... and then, compare. For me, I found several similarities, but, perhaps, one of the primary differences is whether the words point to inner qualities, or outward behaviors. I will surely, in the future, better clarify my use of the ancient words, but for now, I generally use the 'righteous' word as a behavior as witnessed by other people, while using 'piety' as an inner quality that is expressed outwardly. A person can feign righteousness, but cannot feign piety.
Yan: I still think of the east man's translations of piety... the east man was so cold, so very cold of heart... the ancient words were very beautiful, and pointed at a very beautiful thing... but the east man, his words only spoke of commandments, of forced duties, and of violent punishments... the only things that the east man knew of in his own life...
Alo: Yes... and the evidence, was in writing, by his own hand...
Yan: And you also saw the scholar who said that the east man's translations were scholarly?
Alo: Yes... which again proved the scholars' hearts... in writing, by their own hands... students praising other students... none with an understanding of having walked the topic... make stuff up, and then proclaim themselves to be masters...
Yan: They do not know piety...
Alo: No...
De: Pious... worthy of one's tears...
Alo: Yes...