儿子远去千里之外上大学。思念之余,随手翻看到他申请大学时,用心写的一些作文。有一篇关于孔氏血缘的我觉得很切实际,和我的理念相符。附上供宗长宗亲们讨论。我的中文不济,无法翻译,见谅。
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[ALIGN=left] “So, you have blue blood” our family doctor commented during my regular check-up. I thought he was joking about my less-than-healthy eating habits, which consisted mostly of artificially colored junk food. However, the comment finally made sense when, one night during my junior year, my father told me about an ancestor of mine.[/ALIGN]
[ALIGN=left] That night, having hastily finished my homework, I was sitting around playing a videogame when suddenly my father barged into the room and started talking. I thought he was just going to tell me how I should play fewer videogames and study more. But to my astonishment, he instead told me that I was a 76th generation descendant of Confucius. Until then, I had known just enough about Confucius to pass my quizzes in World History. He was just a stuffy old Chinese philosopher with some vague historical significance. How could I possibly be related to him?[/ALIGN]
[ALIGN=left] At first, I thought my father was making up the story to motivate me to study. I hoped he would just leave the room soon. Instead, he showed me our family genealogy and introduced me to a website run and managed by Kong family members all around the world. He also told me that my great-grandfather, Kong Qing Rui, had risked his life during the Chinese Cultural Revolution to preserve the record of my family’s genealogy and history. Hoping to avoid the turmoil of this and other rebellions where many Confucians lost their lives, our branch of the Kong family moved to Shanghai. However, life did not improve in Shanghai, either, and eventually my parents moved to America so that I could have a better life and greater educational opportunities.[/ALIGN]
[ALIGN=left] So, why hadn't I been told about all this earlier? It would have felt great growing up knowing that I have “noble” blood in me. I asked my father, and his answer was that he wanted me to grow up simply as “Leon,” not as someone with an identity heavily colored by the Kong legacy. I began to reflect on what it would mean for me to become “Leon Kong, Carrier of the Kong Family Tradition.” The first thing I realized was that I needed to know more about Confucius than what I could glean just from a few “Confucius says” jokes at school.[/ALIGN]
[ALIGN=left] So I went to the library and read books on Confucian philosophy; I surfed the internet for hours. Before then, I never realized how massively Confucius had influenced Chinese civilization and the intellectual history of East Asia, but all this research only served to make me feel insignificant. Despite the “blue blood” running through my veins, I felt as if I were nothing but a small drop of water in the vast ocean of the Kong family. Of course, some members of the family are poverty stricken farmers in China, but in my part of the Kong world, family members are well-educated and have prominent political or financial positions in society. Simply because I have the potential to go to the best schools and enjoy the best careers, I am prone to much stricter judgment by all the “better” Kongs.[/ALIGN]
[ALIGN=left] So, then, what does this all mean? After much research and a lot of soul searching, I have come to a simple conclusion: It means very little. Do I respect my ancestor Confucius? Certainly. Do I respect all that is best in the Kong family tradition? Of course. But “blue blood” does not make me a superior being. The Kong family “legacy” is neither a guaranteed path to success nor a blueprint for living. In the end, my father was right: being “Leon” is enough. I cannot be – I do not want to be - “Leon Kong, descendant of the great Master Kong.” I want people to know and remember me as an individual who contributes to the world in his own unique way, using his own unique talents. For me, then, “blue blood” is not a symbol of nobility but a kind of motivator, one which makes me want to work harder and be a better person. I could say therefore, the significant impact my ancestor Confucius had on me is the fact that he made me seriously think about my identity and my place in the world. He became an external driving force. I had been considering being medical doctor for my career even before I learned about my ancestry. I decided on this path because I believe that it is one of the most contributing professions for the benefit of others. It is also a profession that is intellectually engaging and enriching. Thus, I would probably have become a doctor whether I had that “blue blood” in me or not. After all, compassion and the pursuit of learning are the two things that Confucius taught with the most emphasis. In that regard, I could say that I am living his legacy. I may not be able to save priceless documents and articles from the hands of the Red Guard as my grandfather had done, nor do I know whether that conforms to everyone's notion about what a “prestigious” Kong should be, but I think Confucius would be proud of my contribution to the world regardless.[/ALIGN]
[ALIGN=left]Leon Kong[/ALIGN]
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