Aoun 1 By Anthony For Bethany Or 345-101-MQ KNOWLEDGE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD section 00001 24 November 2022 Words: 1020 The Junzi, the petty man and the paradox of virtue of Ip man Ip man is more than a classic kung-fu film, it is also a presentation of many of the ideas brought forward by Chinese philosophers of the warring states period, Confucius, and the legendary Laozi (that may or may not have existed, who knows) for instance. The film Ip man demonstrates various Chinese philosophical concepts such as the Junzi and the petty man as taught by Confucius and the Daodejing’s paradox of virtue. As for the film itself, it came out in 2008 and was directed by Wilson Yip. “During the Japanese invasion of China, a wealthy martial artist is forced to leave his home when his city is occupied. With little means of providing for themselves, Ip Man and the remaining members of the city must find a way to survive.” (Summary from IMBD). Confucius popularized the term “Junzi” 1; which contrasts with the petty man and refers to the superior individual, a role model of integrity and wisdom we should follow (Nancarrow 40). As Quite different from the ideal western man, the Junzi has many characteristics that shape his identity: there is dao, ren and xiao among others and they all represent a facet of his personality (41-42). As Or explains in her course on Confucius, being dao means to know and love the way of life, it is an internal feeling and to achieve it, one must follow rituals (Or). Ren is having humanness and being a good person and Xiao is filial piety, which means having prosperous relationships with your relatives (Or). A Junzi also follows a core principle taught by Confucius, Shu: “Is it not Shu [reciprocity]? What you yourself do not desire, do not do to others?” (Qtd. In Goldin 15). These characteristics tie in quite neatly with the character of master Ip, first, due to all the goodness he expresses throughout the story it is safe to say he is quite Ren. One of his best displays of ren is when he chooses to teach factory workers how to defend themselves using the martial arts tactics he uses to help them defend themselves from the bandits from the north that threaten their boss and Ip’s friend (1:10:00). Confucius’ idea of shu is also explicitly mentioned at (1:35:00) by Ip man when he explains that the Japanese does not understand the Confucian virtue of not doing to others what you would not want to be done to you, referring to the war and how they pillaged his village. In the Daodejing, there is a paradox of virtue, as Yan describes. To do good and to have virtue, one must have absolutely zero intentions behind it (178). Also, there is the problem of doing good which causes bad. The paradox 2 of virtue explores this. “The interpretation of yi wei as a 1 The term initially was used to refer to a ruler or a prince (Nancarrow 40) The Daodejing itself is not clear about this and a lot of it has to do with, first, translation, and second, the Daodejings own paradoxical nature. The Daodejing was written in a way that from sentence to sentence, you would encounter many opposites and contradictions, which would 2 Aoun 2 kind of intention or ulterior motive brings us to some familiar thoughts about morality, namely the idea that being truly moral or virtuous involves acting morally or virtuously for its own sake.” (Yan 175). Let us start with Ip man. Ip man is virtuous, we have already established that previously. Ip man is virtuous, but Ip man is not perfect. He neglects his son multiple times in the movie (00:16:00). Does this make him not ren? You may ask. Sure, this action might not be ren because it lacks goodness for his soon, but if you look at the grander picture, he was busy teaching his disciple, meaning he showed goodness to his student. This is the paradox Yan talks about. Of course, he still is a Junzi, a Junzi is not perfect (Littlejohn), yet despite having nothing but good intentions, he still manages to fail as a father. A more straightforward example is the police. Being an officer in charge of maintaining peace certainly does not necessarily make you good, and recent events in our modern world have shown exactly that, but the ones in Ip man specifically displayed a rotten attitude. This police officer in the beginning of the film makes some disrespectful remarks about Kong fu, saying that it is old, and that the new thing is guns, while making a display out of his (00:13:00). Despite him being a police officer, he is not virtuous at all, especially with bragging about having a pistol; he is does things because of his status, not for the good of society, and Confucius thinks a Junzi does not care about his status (Nancarrow 41). Finally, Yuan, the bandits from north and the police officers represent the petty man, thus, an absence of Confucian traits.3 Yuan ran away from home, leaving his brother to worry about where he went for all his life, until his death later in the movie, Yuan finds out about this and is devastated (1:24:00). He did not have filial piety in his relationship with his brother and now regrets it. In this case, filial piety would have been to not abandon your brother and family, stay with them and take care of them, not run away and leave them for good, this shows a lack of gratitude and respect to them (Goldin 35). But so is the life of the petty man. The bandits from the north early in the movie instill fear in Foshan (00:24:30), as well as commit thievery later (01:07:00), which is not very Ren, it does not do any good for society and there's not a lot of goodness and humaneness in that (Or). The Japanese army is also an example of that. They make the people of Foshan afraid (35:33), they took over the city and turned it into hell. “In exercising government, why do you need to kill? If you desire goodness, the people will do good. The character of the noble is like the wind; the character of the petty man is like grass. When the wind [blows] over the grass, it must bend” (Analects as Qtd in Goldin 24). In Confucius own words, the leadership of the Japanese over Foshan is bad, and in the film, they represent the petty man for that reason. In conclusion, we can say that the film Ip man was an interesting showcase for Chinese philosophy concepts such as the Junzi, the petty man and the paradox of Virtue. Confucius and Laozi would be very proud of this film, although I think Laozi would be quite displeased with the current state of the world. evoke emotions in the reader because words alone are not enough to label the thoughts that it wanted to convey. (Or) 3 The petty man really is just the opposite of a Junzi (Nancarrow 40) Aoun 3 Aoun 4 Works cited page: Goldin, Paul R., Confucianism, Chapter 1, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentralcrc.proxy.collecto.ca/lib/champlaincollegeebooks/detail.action?docID=1886869 . Accessed 16 Sep. 2022. "Confucius and the Analects on Self-cultivation and the Exemplary Person (c.500–300 BCE)." Chinese Philosophy: The Essential Writings, Ronnie L. Littlejohn, I.B. Tauris, 1st edition, 2017. Credo Reference, https://credocrc.proxy.collecto.ca/content/entry/ibtaurischinese/confucius_and_the_analects_on_ self_ cultivation_and_the_exemplary_person_c_500_300_bce/0. Accessed 27 Oct. 2022. Nancarrow, Peter H, “Chinese Philosophy”, Kuperard, 2009 Or, Bethany Lecture “Daodejing Part 1” Knowledge 345-101-MQ, Sept. 7 2022, Champlain College, Saint-Lambert Or, Bethany Lecture “Daodejing Part 1” Knowledge 345-101-MQ, Sept. 16 2022, Champlain College, Saint-Lambert Or, Bethany Lecture “Daodejing Part 1” Knowledge 345-101-MQ, Sept. 21 2022, Champlain College, Saint-Lambert Or, Bethany Lecture “Confucius & the Analects Part 1” Knowledge 345-101-MQ, Sept. 28 2022, Champlain College, Saint-Lambert Or, Bethany Lecture “Confucius & the Analects Part 2” Knowledge 345-101-MQ, Oct. 3 2022, Champlain College, Saint-Lambert Or, Bethany Lecture “Confucius & the Analects Part 3” Knowledge 345-101-MQ, Oct. 5 2022, Champlain College, Saint-Lambert Summary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220719/plotsummary Yan, Hektor K. T. “A Paradox of Virtue: The Daodejing on Virtue and Moral Philosophy.” Philosophy East and West, vol. 59, no. 2, 2009, pp. 173–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40213566 . Accessed 16 Sep. 2022.
