Advice to Students
The Thinker's Analects

The practice of history, like the conduct of life, is mostly technique, but it is all the better for some guiding principles above the level of technique. The higher principles define the tenor of a life, and how it engages other lives. There is nothing new in this area. Here instead are some extremely old guidelines.

Integrity

It's good to have a self. A self with boundaries. A self that will do some things but not others. Having that kind of self can cost you, and thus you need to know how to maintain the self against outside pressure. The usual advice is, Just take the money and do what they want; you can do what you want later. The time never comes when someone tells you, OK, now you can do what you want, and say what you think. Here is Confucius (plus one of his later imitators) on how the right sort of person handles these issues:

Wealth and position are what everybody wants, but if he can't get them without violating his principles, he will not accept them. Poverty and obscurity are what everybody hates, but if he can't avoid them without violating his principles, he will not shrink from them. (Analects 4:5; Confucius, 05th century)

When Lyousya Hwei was Leader of the Officers, he was three times dismissed. People said, Can you not bring yourself to go elsewhere? He said, If I am going to be principled in serving others, where could I go that I would not be three times dismissed? And if I am going to be devious in serving others, why need I leave the land of my father and mother? (Analects *18:1a, a later saying from the middle of the 03rd century)

Credibility

The ability to inspire confidence in others is fundamental to both colleagueship and leadership, whether in one's own time or in the opinion of later ages. It is more than merely keeping one's word. It is being a safe repository of the confidence of others. Others should have the sense that their interests are safe in your hands. At the highest institutional level, that of the state, we have this:

Dz-gung asked about government. The Master said, Enough food, enough weapons, the people's confidence. Dz-gung said, If you had to give up something, what would it be? The Master said, Give up the weapons. Dz-gung said, If you had to give up something else, what would it be? The Master said, Give up the food. Since ancient times, everyone has sooner or later died. But if a government does not have the people's confidence, it cannot stand. (Analects *12:7)

Courage

This isn't the army, and it isn't the fire department. Halting runaway locomotives isn't in the normal line of work. But not all the intellectual virtues are pastel virtues, and one should have one's moral reflexes in shape for the challenges that are proper to them. In academe, as in life generally, there exists a whole lexicon of disapproval for principled action. Looking ahead to the moment when principled action may be necessary, we may venture to balance that entire negative lexicon with this one line:

To see what is right and not do it, is to lack courage. (Analects *2:24) 

Otherness

However secluded a life you may have, all virtues are social. We do history not as a quirk, but in company with those who preceded us, and with those who will come after us, and for the benefit of those in our own time who may read our results. The ethic of the historical enterprise is that ultimately it isn't for you, it's for others. Pianists know this. They aren't playing to hear themselves hit the notes; they are playing to give pleasure to an audience. Masons know this. They aren't putting one brick on top of another to watch the stack grow higher, but to make a house for somebody else to live in. Those living the life of the mind should know it too.

Virtue is not solitary. It must have neighbors. (Analects 4:16)

This is the view from the top, and at large. We take up technique in The Student's Bible:

12 Aug 2002 / Contact The Project / Exit to Advice Page