Wei writes, "And Confucius did believe in hate." I ask, Do you mean he
believed in hate as a reality, an observed phenonmenon, or do you mean that
he practiced hate himself as a feeling toward someone or something?
    Confucius, however, also said "If there be a knife of resentment in the
heart or enduring rancor, the mind will not attain precision". But with an
unusual persistence you seem  to blame him for everything his followers did
throughout the ages as if he had done those things himself. This makes as
much sense as blaming the Inquisition on Christ or the self-immolation of
Thich Quang Duc on the Buddha or female circumcision on Mohamed.
    I must thank you for prompting me to reread "The Great Digest" once
again, but I have failed to see anything there which is as iniquitous as you
seem to make it out to be. In fact it doesn't even strike me that Confucius
was as much of an original thinker as as he was someone who believed in the
great importance of leaving things that already work alone. For example, the
model of the ax handle is never very far from one's hand. As a woodworker I
appreciate the practicality of such an astute observation and here agree
with this "cute moral philosopher".
    After reading your postings I have also picked up on Lin Yutang who I
hadn't  read since the 8th. grade in 1957 "Between Tears and Laughter". I
never forgot this book. Now forty-3 years later reading "The Importance of
Living" I am confirming what I have always suspected, that Confucius is so
imbued in the Chinese mind that he among other philosophers as well as a
great body of folk wisdom and the ideogram itself cannot be subtracted from
that enduring and vital balance.

Sincerely,
Charles