“To Learn and at Due Times to Apply What You Have Learnt":The Beginning of the Analects

The Bible begins with Genesis,God's creation of the world,and leads man down the path of obedience God's will on the grounds of belief.On the contrary,at the outset of the Analects,Confucius advocates to learn and at due times apply what one has learnt, which instructs human beings realize the propensities of nature(tianming) through self-cultivation.The first paragraph of the Analects actually tells us the three spiritual stages of Confucius,who is regarded as the spiritual symbol of Chinese culture.