Wealth and Rank

Is it wrong to want money?

Original

子曰：「富與貴，是人之所欲也；不以其道得之，不處也。貧與賤，是人之所惡也；不以其道得之，不去也。君子去仁，惡乎成名？」

In plain words

Confucius said: “Wealth and rank are what everyone wants; but if they come by the wrong way, a gentleman will not keep them. Poverty and low station are what everyone hates; but if they come by the wrong way, a gentleman will not escape them by a wrong way either. If a gentleman leaves humanity behind, how can he make a name?”

Key words

處chǔTo stay in, to accept.
去qùTo leave, to get out of.
惡乎wū hūWhere? By what means?

Reading it step by step

Last time we learned to help others stand. But step into society and the things everyone wants are right in front of you: money and position. What does Confucius make of them?

First: Confucius doesn't pretend to be above it. “Wealth and rank are what everyone wants.” He admits it plainly. Elsewhere he says that if wealth could be properly earned, he would even be a “man with a whip.” In his day two kinds of people held whips: one cracked it in front of an official's carriage to clear the road; the other guarded the market gate. Which had any chance of getting rich? The one at the market, like a junior clerk at a brokerage who hears the prices all day. Confucius picked the humble post with real prospects. A tradition that means to live in the world has to respect what the world values. The question was never whether to want them, but how they come.

Second: the two sentences are not symmetrical. Wealth that comes the wrong way: don't keep it. Poverty that comes the wrong way: don't run from it. Why? Because when hardship falls on you unfairly, say you are pushed out of a post by others' scheming, the temptation is to scramble out by crooked means, and then you are the one who has left the road.

Liuxia Hui was gifted and good, yet a colleague kept him out of the post he deserved; Confucius called that man a thief of office. Liuxia Hui never wailed that his classmates had all done well. He went on quietly doing his small job. Poverty is a test. Only when winter comes do you see that pine and cypress are the last to lose their green. Unjust wealth is a temptation; unjust hardship is a test. Either way, you keep to the same road.

by the right way

by the wrong way

wealth & rank

may keep ituse it to help others

won't keep itlike a floating cloud

poverty & low rank

work to change itclimb honestly

won't flee it crookedlyhold the Way, like winter pine

Unjust wealth tempts; unjust hardship tests

Third: wealth is a result, not a goal. Look at it from three sides. It is partly fate: you don't choose your era or your luck, so if it comes, be glad, and if not, accept it. It raises the question of legitimacy: make wealth a must-have and you will stop caring how you get it. And it ends: you bring nothing in and carry nothing out, so while you have it, use it to help people. Treat work as the place to use your abilities and do your part, and pay comes as a natural result. Treat pay as the only purpose, and work becomes a mere means, and real contentment is hard to find.

Think of a recent choice. A little more money, if you tell a client something not quite true. Or a promotion unfairly blocked, and a shortcut around it. Confucius won't ask you to pretend money doesn't matter. He only asks: is this the right road?

Want money, by all means. But let it come in by the front door.

One line to carry

Want money, but let it in by the front door.

Today's question

If your pay doubled tomorrow, would the way you work change? What does that tell you about why you work?

Quick check

What does “poverty that comes the wrong way, he does not escape” mean?

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