Confucius felt ashamed after listening to the children's words, but he said to the two children calmly, "If you know a little, you won't understand. If you understand, you will understand." Although I read a lot of poetry books, I am called a saint, but sometimes I don't know. I am willing to bow to your question now, but I will not regard it as a meteor and forget it after reading it. I will continue to explore and find out the answer. When I find out the truth of this question, I will definitely come back and tell you the correct answer. "Confucius said, looked at the sun and his own shadow overhead, thought about it, and left.
The two children looked at Confucius and walked away laughing and laughing.
While thinking about that problem, Confucius walked slowly and unconsciously came to a clearing. At this time, it was noon and the sun was burning. Confucius, look at the shadow under the ground. It is short and small. Look at the sun overhead, the size of a small dish. It can be seen that it is far away from human beings, but it is as hot as fire. Why on earth is this?
In order to facilitate observation, Confucius lived in a family near this clearing for a few days. He goes to that clearing every morning and noon to observe the shadow and the sun. Moreover, every time he observes, he makes some simple records and then makes further thinking. Many assumptions are still in his mind. Sometimes he observes and thinks, and stays in that clearing for half a day.
After ten days' observation, repeated thinking and revision of the results, Confucius took what he thought was the most accurate hypothesis as his observation result and the correct answer to the two children's questions. Confucius came to the conclusion that the sun is really far away from us in the early morning. Just like an arrow, when it shoots from a person's side, the arrow passes by the person's body, causing little or no harm to the person. However, if an arrow shoots from above the head of a person, it will do great harm to people. If we assume that the light irradiated by the sun is an arrow, we can draw the conclusion that when the sun rises, because it is not directly above us, it gives off heat just like putting two hands on both sides of a candle, so we can only feel warm and rarely get burned. This is a long shadow. In Japan and China, the sun shines directly on our heads, just like putting our hands on the flame of a candle, which not only makes us feel very hot, but also burns us easily. Shadows will also get shorter.
In order to give the two children a more accurate answer, Confucius also told his students and colleagues his own opinions, hoping to draw some new conclusions and make the answer more perfect.
For this answer about the sun, Confucius spent about a month.
A month ago today, Confucius was troubled by this problem and realized his own shortcomings. But today, a month later, Confucius, full of confidence, once again came to the place where "the two were young and debated Japan" to answer children's questions. However, when he met the two children, they had already started reading and learning Taoist thoughts. Confucius went to tell them that the answer to their question was that the two children didn't believe it at all. Because Taoism and Confucianism are opposites.
Confucius sighed at this moment and said, "How can truth have boundaries?" As long as it is truth, it is truth, no matter what numbers and thoughts it is, no one can hide it! You have to believe! This is also what a scholar should know. "