Confucius City to be built in China

Let us forget the infernal Olympics and  declare Confucius Week.   China's returning enthusiasm for the great philosopher and teacher is to be marked - says China Daily - by a huge cultural project costing $4.2 billion,  a "Chinese Cultural Symbolic City"  of 300 square km in Shandong PRovince.  Picture shows the conference launching it.  The official website is here,  though obviously in Chinese:  perhaps I should not have chosen Babelfish auto-translater, but statements do come out marvellously poetic, "We must learn to moisten Kong Zi "the light"... and " the cultural carrier many to let the people understand the sea, shows loving concern the marine life, these all are develops the sea culture to need to ponder."
    It is a rather wonderfully idealistic project, though shot through with  canny awareness of a tourist future.  Confucianism has a fascinating peacefulness and compassion about it (see earlier blogs about the battle for his soul,  nursery school,  the Chinese Catholic awareness,  the UK courses on him).   A good primer is   here, and politicians everywhere should observe his rule that:    “Good government consists in the ruler being a ruler, the minister being a minister, the father being a father, and the son being a son.” (Lunyu 12.11)
  Carry on below for some Confucian sayings..

Confucius said:

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.

For generations there have been parodic "Confucius he say" jokes,  but the interesting thing about them is that they always major on a kind of obviousness, a naivete.  Which is not the characteristic of real Confucian sayings, as above, which are simple but also profound.  Examples:

Man who live in glass house dress in basement.
Man who run behind car get exhausted.
Man who run in front of car, get tired.
Man who wish to make headlines should sleep on corduroy pillow.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas.
To make egg roll, push it.
Two wrongs not make right, three lefts do.

However, a parodic Confucius joke which actually does have profundity is...

War does not determine who is right - war determine who is left.