Ren* (kindness) is the core of Confucianism in traditional Chinese culture. The focal point of "Ren" is to "love and care for people", promoting a relationship of kindness between people. Confucius stated that when all classes of society can be kind and follow this etiquette, society will be harmonious, and people will live peacefully and happily. Confucius stressed that practising Ren (kindness) and De (morality) is not a matter of capability, but a matter of attitude.

Emperor Taizong disagreed. He said, "After the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang dynasty, Emperor Zhou Wuwang made great efforts to promote benevolence and righteousness; but when Qin Shihuang reached his goal, he used violence. They differed not only in how they obtained the throne of the country but also how they maintained the country. That's why the throne fell."

Once Liu Bang asked Han Xin, "If I were a general, how many soldiers can I lead?" Han Xin said, "Your Majesty can lead 100,000 soldiers." Liu Bang then asked, "How many soldiers can you lead?" Han Xin smiled and replied, "Me? Duo-duo Yi-shan." Literally translated, this meant "the more, the better", essentially boasting that no army is too big for him to lead.

Confucius (BC 551- 479) is regarded as one of the greatest teachers and philosophers in Chinese history and has had a very significant influence on Chinese morality and arts. In his latter years, he travelled with his students to various states (ruled by warlords) to spread his teachings but was not very well received at the time.

The final product contained embroideries of ten continents, three islands, and celestial beings and jade maidens. It also had embroidered portraits of the palace, rare treasures, and a thousand children holding pennants. The blanket was about ten feet in width and weighed only three ounces. To make the blanket durable, she used some medicine to make an ointment and applied it to the surface. Emperor Shunzong sighed with her ingeniousness and called her the Lady of God.

When a wild goose or a mallard duck loses its mate, it would never seek a new mate. This is called "loyalty." When a deer comes across good grass, it will call the entire group to share, and when an ant comes across food, it will gather the whole colony. This is called "justice." Please remember these four virtues, as even a beast is capable of maintaining this virtue. If a human being has no virtue at all, he is considered as "worse than a beast."

Holding such thoughts, Ran Qiu started to become lazy and felt it was useless no matter how much more he learnt. In addition, Ran Qiu also attributed his poor performance in the class to his own insufficient abilities. He thought that, since he was not capable enough, he would never be able to achieve the level that Confucius was teaching, so why did he need to study carefully?

Youzi said, "That is not what teacher said." Zenzi replied, "I indeed heard this from teacher." Youzi said again, "This is not the remark teacher made." Zenzi said, "I heard this remark together with Ziyou." Youzi then said, "Teacher possibly did say this, but teacher must have said these words aiming at a specific matter."

Upon seeing this, Zhao Cishan scolded the grandson, saying, "You are such a young scholar, so you should be diligent and persevere. How come you cannot endure a little cold? You must know that an official in the court, even on a snowy day, has to line up in a group before dawn waiting for the emperor to show up. You will unavoidably have to endure the cold weather. If a person enjoys the comfort of old age while he is young, he certainly will not live to be old."

Confucius travelled to many kingdoms to spread his views. One time he left the Kingdom of Wei for the Kingdom of Chen via Kuang City. The people in Kuang City mistook Confucius as Yang Hu from Lu. Indeed, Confucius looked like Yang Hu. Yang Hu had invaded Kuang City before, and the people in Kuang City resented Yang Hu very much, so they encircled Confucius and his followers. The situation became very tense, and his followers were afraid.

The lady said, "If I am gone, there would be no one to nurse my baby, and he will surely die." Mr. Shu said, "People who travel with me are all private school teachers from Jiangxi Province. As long as everyone donates one ounce of silver, your trouble will be solved." So Mr. Shu went back on the ship and told the others what was happening. However, nobody really cared about it. So Mr. Shu gave all his savings of the past two years to the woman.

When Shanguo went to the tribunal to sit in judgement in public affairs, his mother would sit on a stool behind a curtain at the back of the hall and listen carefully to how her son analysed each situation and rendered his decision. Whenever Shanguo failed to make a fair judgement or lost his temper during the proceedings, his mother would crawl under a quilt and cry when they returned home, eating nothing for the whole day.

Wei Shiju considered principles more important than profit and rescued other people in crisis. His son Wei Shoujie was an official and achieved a rank similar to today's prime minister. This really shows that good will be rewarded with good and families that accumulate good deeds will have good fortune.

Later Zi Gong served as an official in the state of Wei. Some people slandered Confucius. Zi Gong said, "Confucius is unable to be slandered. Other men of virtue are like the knoll and can be exceeded. But Confucious is like the sun and the moon and cannot be exceeded. Those people who slander Confucious can only put themselves in a hopeless situation. But they cannot harm anything of the sun or the moon. Moreover, it will also show that they do not know their own position."

A young fisherman came to Zheng Dinggong and told him, "I have an idea on how to get Wu Zixu to give up attacking Zheng." Once Zheng Dinggong heard this, he asked the fisherman right away, "How many soldiers and chariots do you need?" The fisherman shook his head and said, "I don't need any soldiers and chariots, or food, I only need my paddle and I can get tens of thousand soldiers from Wu to return to Wu." The fisherman put the paddle underneath his arm and went to the barracks of Wu to find Wu Zixu.

The next day, a group of merchants came to his shop to buy some cloth. Mr. Tao Siwong did not dye any cloth with the fake purple grass, and burnt all of the fake grass in front of the merchants. He said, "I'd rather lose money than sacrifice others' benefit."

Su Shi was so upset that his face was blue and he immediately hired a boat to cross to the other side of the river to argue with Master Foyin. When he got to the opposite bank, he saw that the door of Master Foyin's temple was tightly closed. He guessed that Master Foyin must have been scared away. When he walked up to the closed temple door, he saw a small note. He went closer to read the note that said, "Didn't you say you aren't moved by the eight winds? Why did you jump across the river with flatulence in the wind!?"

This is a scene from a Chinese detention center, where prison guards are given directives to "transform" people who practice Falun Gong; that is, force them to renounce their beliefs. When brainwashing classes do not work, practitioners are subjected to relentless beating and torture, sometimes unto death.

Whenever he chanted an incantation, there would be a realm displayed inside his jar with a sun, a moon, stars, a blue sky, earth, mountains, woods and grasslands, flowers, temples and houses, etc. Even more mysterious was that every night, Zhang Shen would put his jar on the floor, and slip into the jar to sleep after chanting incantations to enjoy his deity realm. He called his realm inside the jar the "Jar Heaven." Thus, people called him the "Jar Gentleman."

Several months later, the Jiang family planned to build a garden. The son went to the mountain with others to collect stones for the garden when suddenly a large rock fell on him, killing him instantly. Jiang Xinhui was heartbroken. Then someone told him about how his son had accepted the bribe secretly. Jiang gradually got over his grief. He decided not to hide what his son had done and instead let people talk about it openly.

Zeng immediately said, "I had originally planned to do the same thing. But I heard that a famine has just broken out in the north. If the clay-ware pieces are transported to the north, it might be difficult to sell them there. Therefore I cancelled my trip." That person immediately backed out of the deal and left with the money that he had planned to pay Zeng for the clay-ware. Because he couldn't sell the clay-ware, Zeng's entire family soon fell into a destitute situation with no food and no way to keep warm.

The businessman thanked Lin Ji on his knees after he went to Beijing Guandao School, and with tears in his eyes told Lin Ji the whole story. Lin Ji asked him to tell exactly how many pearls were in the fabric pouch. Mr. Zhang answered correctly. Lin Ji then knew that it was his and gave it back to him. Mr. Zhang was so grateful that he offered to take only half of the pearls back for his family. Lin Ji said, "If I truly wanted to have half of your pearls, I would not have put up posters along the road asking you to look for me." Mr. Zhang insisted on giving him half, but Lin Ji firmly refused.

"Not afraid that others may know, but that I know" is the spirit of self-control. It tells people that one can control and behave oneself by following certain rules. In traditional Chinese culture people stress "not to misbehave in a dark room," meaning that even though nobody would know about it if we did a wrong deed, we should still follow our moral standards. People who believe in gods and heaven know that our every thought and every move are being watched.

Qi Jingtong scolded Qi Jiguang seriously for his extravagant and ostentatious idea. He cautioned Qi Jiguang, "If you pursue and indulge yourself in vanity, you won't be able to achieve great things when you grow up." Qi Jiguang accepted his father's criticism and told the artisan to install only four carved doors.

With this teaching, discipline from his father as well as learning from his father's exemplary conduct, Qi Jiguang sought no extravagance and felt content with moderate food. He was diligent and earnest in his studies and practice of martial arts. Later, he became a famous general as well as an outstanding strategist of the Ming Dynasty, and fought against the invading minorities. He therefore had his name imprinted in Chinese history. He had learned that flaunting, indulgence, attachment to one's own appearance, acquiring wealth, achievements and status - these attachments aim at seeking other people's flattery and praise, and are all manifestations of vanity.

Red skies falling
a new light dawning
the ‘Party’s’ evil spectre
to reign no more.

They pour in substances such as a mixture of water and cornmeal, concentrated salt solutions, hot chili paste and even human excretory waste. The intention is to inflict pain so as to break the will. Such torture is extremely painful and is the most common cause of death.

When Tao Kan was young, he worked as an officer in Xunyang County (now known as Jiujiang County). He was in charge of catching fish. He once sent a jar of salted fish to his mother. She returned the fish with a letter, saying that "As an officer, you should not send me anything that belongs to the government. I don't benefit from it, and on the contrary, you have burdened me emotionally."

When Acai was very ill, he called all of his sons together and asked each one of them to give him one arrow. He then said to his younger brother, Mu Liyan, "Please take one arrow here and break it." Mu Liyan easily broke the arrow. Acai then said, "Please take nineteen arrows here and break them." Mu Liyan could no longer break the bundle of arrows. Acai said, "Now do you understand? One arrow is very easily broken, while a bundle of arrows is hard to break. As long as all of you work together with one heart, our kingdom will be stable."