Confucius, Chinese History and My History

Today, I attended a seminar on how Confucianism is a common thread among contemporary Chinese Educators. It was an extremely interesting seminar. I enjoyed it very much.
As the professor gave her seminar, Confucius sayings started coming back to me...

I did Confucius Studies (in Chinese) as a subject in upper secondary. I found it very interesting and I used to do very well for it. Well, one reason could be I was strong in my Chinese so it was a breeze for me taking Confucius Studies. But I think the other reason might be more probable: I had prior contact with Confucius Studies and so it was not totally new to me. My mother was my first teacher for Confucius Studies.

My mother, as most of you already know, is a Taiwanese. Since my brother and I were young, she would always talk to us about the rich 5000-odd years of Chinese history, the various Dynasties and its rulers (right from Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, ... all the way to Yuan, Ming, Qing and modern China). She also spoke to us of the various great thinkers and philosophers such as Confucius, Lao Tze, Meng Tze, Tsang Tze and the various Chinese classics (e.g. The Analects, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Three-Characters Book, etc). My mother actually bought us the simplified versions of the various classics (in Chinese) to read. I remembered reading the classics because I wanted to learn more after listening to my mother. To my mother, my brother and I should know about our Chinese history, the Chinese classics because it is part of who we are, it is our roots and origins.

I never realised how fortunate I am to have known about our Chinese history, the Chinese classics until today when I had a brief discussion with a good friend after the seminar about Confucianism. To me, they were part and parcel of my life, they were part of my growing up which I have never given a second thought about until today. In keeping with Reflection in Confucius' The Analects, I think it is time for me to revisit the Chinese classics again, starting with The Analects of Confucius.