On the afternoon of 5th December, 2015, Professor Bao Pengshan from Shanghai Open University was invited to come to “Science and Humanity Forum” to bring students the lecture of “Philosophers’ Wisdom”. Before the lecture started, secretary of general Party branch of SPEA, Mr. Shen Hui, chairman of alumni association of SPEA, Mr. Zhou Weiming, and head of “Humanity Reading Group” of alumni association of SPEA, Ms. Wu Yongmei talked with Prof. Bao. The lecture took place in the lecture hall on the first floor of administration building, and attracted over 100 students to come.
Prof. Bao is doctor in art, writer and scholar. He teaches in Shanghai Open University, and is adjunct professor in Shanghai Jiaotong University. He is member of Academic Committee of China Confucius Foundation. He is the guest speaker of several TV programs, such CCTV “Lecture Room”, Shanghai TV Dongfang Lecture Room and Shanghai Education TV “Century Lecture Room”. He is mainly occupied in teaching and studying Ancient Chinese Literature and Ancient Culture. He published over 30 monographs, such as How Confucius Was Tempered, Soul of Chinese People: Sense and Sensibility for Three Thousand Years, Biography of Confucius. He is columnist of several magazines in China and his works was collected in various collections and Chinese text book published by People’s Education Press.
Prof. Bao concluded philosophers’ wisdom as five key words, which are faith, attitude, state, thinking and method. Lecture processed as the sequence of these five words. By interpreting the book, Confucius Family, he pointed out that people who had great achievements all had faith. Faith is a precise belief to some extent that we believe that we should be a righteous person and faith gives us this power to chase this goal. By introducing Mo-tse and Confucius, he said Confucius’ attitude that “insisting in doing something which is known cannot to be done” is precious. This shows the world an attitude that the result will be different as long as the process is different.
By analyzing the wisdom of Confucius and Meng-tze, Prof. Bao said that the best state is doing one’s work with whole heart without asking for the gains. He encouraged students that they never be despaired and ten-year’s persistence in one thing will make people an expert in that field. At same time, he used examples of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg to prove that one’s success is not determined by his or her profession, but by one’s inner state, attitude and faith or belief. Therefore, he encouraged students to enhance their study motivation and study hard for creating bigger social value.
By telling the story of big bead by Tchouang-tse and the story of catch fish on the tree by Meng-tze, Prof. Bao pointed out that the success or failure of one person not rely on a couple of events, but on their thinking. He said intelligence is the ability and method to do something, but wisdom is the ability and thinking to do career. By taking the example of Forrest Gump, he indicated that “stupid” person often “insist in principles” and his or her thinking will not change because of one or two piece of profitable things, so that they own wisdom to some extent. At last, he gave brief introduction about the fifth key word method in the aspects of professional skill, application and emotional intelligence.
In the end of the lecture, Prof. Bao communicated with students on the questions of how we can seek for our belief, how we can hold the hope when frustrated and how could we learn Chinese traditional culture.
In this nearly two-hour lecture, Prof. Bao wildly quoted famous works and talked freely from ancient times to today. His style of speaking was full of humor, affinity, sharp and gentle. This Bao style lecture brought students a marvelous feast of academy and thought. The whole lecture hall was occupied and was full of laughing and applause. Students all expressed that they benefited from the lecture a lot and they will be more interested in learning Chinese traditional culture.