> Traditional Confucian philosophy certainly did not despise self-promotion. Confucius proclaimed himself the greatest sage alive, and his arrogant attitude turned off every ruler he was trying to advise.
This doesn't actually follow - "do as I say, not as I do" and all that. The actions of the philosopher and the preferences of the philosophy do not have to match.
That's simply not true. Asian culture had a tremendous influence, even if somewhat misunderstood or reinterpreted, on the West. Our exam system in universities is inspired by the Chinese. People like Voltaire did admire Confucius' way to (not) talk about God. Leibniz was impressed by Yi-king's numerical perfection. Etc. (I agree that the zen-this and dao-that we have nowadays is an uninformed Western distortion, though).
Edit: And I dislike the quote in the article. I read Daode Jing many time, in different translation, and I don't remember having seen this. Anyway, any quotation of Chinese classics that do not give the reference is deemed to be a joke (like those Confucius said jokes).
It works because a large part of it is based not just on Chinese culture, but on human nature.
Its the reason that the Ten Commandments are still relevant today, because as Paul Mooney said, "It puts its foot in man's ass", or in other words, because many of the stories in the Bible were written by people with an understanding of human nature.
The same reason so much of the Constitution of the United States of America still works. Its written to humanity's nature, not current events of 1776.
Confucius said, "Is there anyone who can even for a day give their full strength to being humane? I haven’t met anyone who lacked the strength. But if anyone has done this, I haven’t seen it."
I don't think that's Confucius. Doesn't sound like him, can't find any source mentioned online. It appears in a lot of places online, like fake quotes do, but never with a source.
Confucious also said "those who cannot forgive others break the bridge over which they themselves must pass.”
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