Why Are Harvard Students Studying Ancient Chinese Philosophy?

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Picture a world where human relationships are challenging, narcissism1narcissism自赏，自恋，自我陶醉。and self-centeredness2self-centeredness自我中心。are on the rise, and there is disagreement on the best way for people to live harmoniously together.

It sounds like 21st-century America.But the society that Michael Puett, a tall, 48-year-old bespectacled3bespectacled 戴眼镜的。professor of Chinese history at Harvard University, is describing to more than 700 rapt4rapt全神贯注的，专心致志的。undergraduates is China, 2,500 years ago.

Puett’s course Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory has become the third most popular course at the university.

[2]Puett uses Chinese philosophy as a way to give undergraduates concrete, counter-intuitive, and even revolutionary ideas, which teach them how to live a better life. Puett puts a fresh spin on the questions that Chinese scholars grappled5grapple努力设法解决。with centuries ago.He requires his students to closely read original texts (in translation) such as Confucius’sAnalects, theMencius, and theDaodejingand then actively put the teachings into practice in their daily lives. His lectures use Chinese thought in the context of contemporary American life to help 18- and 19-year-olds who are struggling to find their place in the world figure out how to be good human beings;how to create a good society; how to have a flourishing life.

想象有这样一个世界：人际关系复杂紧张；孤芳自赏和唯我独尊的风气日盛；人们对和谐共处的最佳方式莫衷一是。

听起来这像是21世纪的美国。但是，迈克尔·皮特教授给700多位专注听课的哈佛学子描述的，恰恰是2500年前的中国。迈克尔·皮特是哈佛大学的中国历史教授，48岁，个子高高，戴着眼镜。

皮特所教的“中国经典道德与政治理论”这门课已经在哈佛大学学生最喜爱的课程中排名第三。

[2]皮特教授运用中国哲学思想，向学生展示具体的、反直觉的、甚至是革命性的想法，从而教会他们如何拥有更好的生活。对于几世纪前中国学者没法解决的那些问题，皮特教授提出了全新的看法。他要求学生仔细阅读《论语》《孟子》和《道德经》的原文（英译本），并积极将其中的思想应用到日常生活中。他的课将中国思想迁移到当代美国人的生活环境中，帮助那些十八九岁正苦苦寻找人生定位的年轻人了解如何成为好人，如何创造美好的社会，如何拥有幸福的生活。

[3]Puett told me he is seeing more students who are “feeling pushed onto a very specific path towards very concrete career goals” than he did when he began teaching nearly 20 years ago. A recent report shows a steep decline over the last decade in the number of Harvard students who are choosing to major in the humanities, a trend roughly seen across the nation’s liberal arts schools.Finance remains the most popular career for Harvard graduates. Puett sees students who orient all their courses and even their extracurricular activities towards practical, predetermined career goals and plans.

[4]Puett tells his students that being calculating and rationally deciding on plans is precisely the wrong way to make any sort of important life decision. The Chinese philosophers they are reading would say that this strategy makes it harder to remain open to other possibilities that don’t fit into that plan.Students who do this “are not paying enough attention to the daily things that actually invigorate and inspire them, out of which could come a really fulfilling,exciting life,” he explains.

[3]皮特教授告诉我，与大约20年前他初登讲台时相比，现在有更多的学生“感觉自己被推着走上一条路，朝着非常具体的职业目标前进”。最近的一项报告显示，过去十年间，选择主修人文学科的哈佛学子人数骤降，且这一现象几乎在美国所有文理学院都普遍存在。最受哈佛学生青睐的职业依然是金融业。皮特教授还发现哈佛学生选择的所有课程乃至课外活动都围绕着他们早已确定好的、现实的职业目标与计划。

[4]皮特教授告诉学生，在做任何人生重大决定时，精打细算、理智谋划恰恰是条歧路。他们所读到的中国古代思想家会说，这种策略容易使人故步自封，而忽略了与计划不符的其他可能。这类学生“没有注意到日常生活里可以真正激发、启发他们的事物，然而真正充实、令人振奋的生活正是由此而生。”皮特教授如是说。

[5]If what excites a student is not the same as what he has decided is best for him, he becomes trapped on a misguided path, slated6slate预定，计划，安排。to begin an unfulfilling career. Puett aims to open his students’eyes to a different way to approach everything from relationships to career decisions. He teaches them that:

[6] The smallest actions have the most profound ramifications7 ramification（众多复杂而又难以预料的）结果，后果。.Confucius,Mencius, and other Chinese philosophers taught that the most mundane8mundane平凡的，平淡的。actions can have a ripple effect. That rush of good feeling that comes after a daily run, the inspiring conversation with a good friend,or the momentary flash of anger that arises when someone cuts in front of us in line—what could they have to do with big life matters? Everything, actually.

[7]From a Chinese philosophical point of view, these small daily experiences provide us endless opportunities to understand ourselves. When we notice and understand what makes us tick9what makes sb tick使某人这样做的原因。,react, feel joyful or angry, we develop a better sense of who we are that helps us when approaching new situations.Mencius, a Confucian thinker (4th century B.C.E.), taught that if you cultivate your better nature in these small ways, you can become an extraordinary person with an incredible influence,altering your own life as well as that of those around you, until finally “you can turn the whole world in the palm of your hand.”

[5]如果某个学生觉得令他兴奋的事情与自己原定的最佳选择不符，他一不小心会误入歧途,不得不从事毫无成就感的工作。皮特教授希望能引导学生打开思路，换个方式看待事物，无论是人际关系还是职业选择。他教育他的学生们：

[6]最微小的行动能产生最深远的影响。孔子、孟子以及其他中国哲学家教育世人，最寻常的举动也可以产生连锁反应。每日跑步锻炼后的那阵舒爽，与好友交流后的豁然开朗，抑或是被人插队时那一瞬间的愤怒——这些微妙的体验与人生的重大之事有何干系？而事实上，万事万物都是普遍联系的。

[7]在中国哲学里，这些微小的日常体验赋予了我们无数了解自身的机会。若我们能注意并了解自己的行动、反应和喜怒哀乐的原因，我们就更了解自己。这一认知可以帮助我们更好地应对新情况。儒家学派的代表人物孟子（公元前4世纪）就告诉我们，如果你从细节着手培养自己的优点与美德，你能成为一位颇具影响力的人物，改变自己和周围人的生活，最终“万物皆备于我矣”。

[8] Decisions are made from the heart.Americans tend to believe that humans are rational creatures who make decisions logically, using our brains. But in Chinese, the word for“mind” and “heart” are the same. Puett teaches that the heart and the mind are inextricably linked, and that one does not exist without the other. Whenever we make decisions, from the prosaic to the profound (what to make for dinner;which courses to take next semester;what career path to follow; whom to marry), we will make better ones when we intuit how to integrate heart and mind and let our rational and emotional sides blend into one.

[9]Zhuangzi, a Daoist philosopher,taught that we should train ourselves to become “spontaneous” through daily living, rather than closing ourselves off through what we think of as rational decision-making. In the same way that one deliberately practices the piano in order to eventually play it effortlessly10effortlessly娴熟地。,through our everyday activities we train ourselves to become more open to experiences and phenomena so that eventually the right responses and decisions come spontaneously, without angst, from the heart-mind.

[8]从心所欲。美国人认为，人类是理性动物，使用大脑，根据逻辑做出决定。但在中文里, “心”这个字既表示理性也代表情感。所以皮特教授告诉学生，心脑联系紧密，密不可分。任何时候做任何决定，无论是鸡毛蒜皮的小事还是事关命运的大事（诸如晚饭吃什么；下学期选哪些课；该从事什么工作；该和谁结婚等），如若我们能凭直觉实现心脑合一，能将理性与感性思维结合，我们会做出更好的决定。

[9]作为道家学派的代表人物，庄子认为，我们要在日常生活中训练自己“率性而为”，而不能因为所谓的理性决策而故步自封。正如钢琴学习者通过不断的刻意练习以达到娴熟演奏的水平，我们亦可通过每日刻意训练，让自己感受各种体验与现象，从而最终在心脑合一的境界里做出最自然的反应和正确的决定。

[10] If the body leads, the mind will follow.Behaving kindly (even when you are not feeling kindly), or smiling at someone (even if you aren’t feeling particularly friendly at the moment)can cause actual differences in how you end up feeling and behaving, even ultimately changing the outcome of a situation.

[11]While all this might sound like hooey-wooey self-help, much of what Puett teaches is previously accepted cultural wisdom that has been lost in the modern age. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do,” a view shared by thinkers such as Confucius, who taught that the importance of rituals lies in how they inculcate11inculcate反复灌输，谆谆教诲。a certain sensibility in a person.

[12]At the end of each class, Puett challenges his students to put the Chinese philosophy they have been learning into tangible practice in their everyday lives. “The Chinese philosophers we read taught that the way to really change lives for the better is from a very mundane level, changing the way people experience and respond to the world, so I’m not trying to give my students really big advice about what to do with their lives. I just want to give them a sense of what they can do daily to transform how they live.”

[10]行先启，知后至。采取善意的行动（哪怕你并不觉得亲切），或是对某人微笑（即便你当时并未感觉特别友好），都可以改变你最终的感受和行为，甚至最后能改变事情的结果。

[11] 或许这些听起来净是自我安慰的胡说八道，但皮特教授所教的大部分内容都是现代社会业已丢失的那些曾为人们所接受的文化智慧。亚里士多德曾说过：“我们的重复所为造就了自己。”不少思想家,如孔子，与亚里士多德不谋而合。孔子认为，“礼”的重要性在于它在潜移默化中提高了人的感受力。

[12]每堂课结束前，皮特教授都会要求学生们将自己所学的中国哲学运用到实际的日常生活中。“我们所读到的这些中国哲学思想教育我们，想让生活真正变得更好，须从小事做起，改变人们感知世界、回应世界的方式。因此，我并不打算给学生讲什么人生大道理。我只是希望他们能意识到自己可以从日常小事做起，改变自己的生活。”

[13] Their assignments are small ones: to first observe how they feel when they smile at a stranger,hold open a door for someone, engage in a hobby. He asks them to take note of what happens next: how every action, gesture, or word dramatically affects how others respond to them. Then Puett asks them to pursue more of the activities that they notice arouse positive, excited feelings.In their papers and discussion sections students discuss what it means to live life according to the teachings of these philosophers.

[14] To be interconnected, focus on mundane, everyday practices, and understand that great things begin with the very smallest of acts are radical ideas for young people living in a society that pressures them to think big and achieve individual excellence.

[13]皮特教授布置的作业也很简单——首先观察一下自己在以下时刻的感受：对陌生人微笑，为别人扶门，参加一项自己爱好的活动。皮特教授要求学生记录下之后发生的事情：自己的每一次行动，每一个动作，每一句话如何明显地改变了他人对自己的反应。在此基础上，他要求学生们努力寻找更多能让他们产生积极、振奋情绪的行为活动。学生们在撰写的论文及讨论部分中，探讨了在中国哲学思想中，生活究竟意味着什么。

[14]当今社会，年轻人迫于压力，立下壮志，追求卓越。而要让他们体会事物是普遍联系的, 关注平凡的日常小事, 明白“天下大事，必作于细”的道理，对于他们而言有深远的意义。

[15]One of Puett’s former students,Adam Mitchell, was a math and science whiz12whiz能手，奇才。who went to Harvard intending to major in economics. At Harvard specifically and in society in general,he told me, “we’re expected to think of our future in this rational way: to add up the pros and cons and then make a decision. That leads you down the road of ‘Stick with what you’re good at’”—a road with little risk but little reward.But after his introduction to Chinese philosophy during his sophomore13sophomore大学二年级，大二学生。year, he realized this wasn’t the only way to think about the future. Instead,he tried courses he was drawn to but wasn’t naturally adroit at because he had learned how much value lies in working hard to become better at what you love. He became more aware of the way he was affected by those around him, and how they were affected by his own actions in turn. Mitchell threw himself into foreign language learning,feels his relationships have deepened,and is today working towards a master’s degree in regional studies. ■

[15]亚当·米切尔曾是皮特教授的学生，是一名数学与科学奇才。他跨入哈佛大学校门时打算主修经济学。他告诉我，无论是哈佛大学还是整个社会，“都要求我们必须理智地思考我们的未来：权衡利弊，做出决定。所以我们走上了这样一条道路：‘坚守自己擅长的’”——这条路几乎毫无风险，也毫无成就感。但米切尔在大二的时候接触了中国哲学后，意识到自己还可以以其他方式思考未来。于是，他尝试选修了自己感兴趣却并不一定擅长的课程，因为他已经知道，通过努力学习将自己所爱变成所长是一件多么有价值的事。他日益体会到周遭对自己的影响，以及自己相应的反应对周围人与事的影响。米切尔还投入到了外语学习中，感受到了自己与周围的关系在深化。目前他正在攻读区域研究的硕士学位。 □