Analects
Confucius, c. 479-221 BCE
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The Analects is a collection of short sayings and conversations of Confucius and his disciples, in twenty books. The Master talks about learning, filial piety, ritual, the conduct of rulers and the gentleman, and answers pupils who ask what virtue and knowledge are. There is no plot. The book reads as a set of remarks on how to cultivate oneself so that a family and a state can be governed well, from the saying that learning is a pleasure to his account of his own growth from fifteen to seventy.
Where it happens
Through time
- 479 BCConfucius dies; disciples later gather their records of his conversations.1
- 475 BCStart of the Warring States period, when most of the text is thought to have been composed.1
- 150 BCIn the reign of Emperor Jing of Han an Old Text version is found hidden in a wall of a house believed to be Confucius's.1
- 220End of the Han dynasty, by which time the Analects has become a central Confucian text.1
- 1279By the end of the Song dynasty the Analects ranks among the Four Books above the older Five Classics.1
Who is in it, and behind it
Confucius's disciples scribe
Followers who traditionally kept records of the Master's conversations and edited them after his death.1
James Legge translator
Translator whose English text the site carries.3
Ban Gu scribe
Han dynasty writer whose Book of Han gives the traditional account of how the text arose.1
Liu Xiang scribe
Han dynasty scholar who reports two versions, Lu and Qi, at the start of the Han.1
Zhu Xi scribe
Song dynasty neo-Confucian who held the Analects to be records of first and second generation pupils.1
Cui Shu scribe
Qing dynasty philologist who argued from language that the last five books are later than the rest.1
What it is about
Learning as pleasure
The opening saying asks whether it is not pleasant to learn with constant application.13
Ren and filial piety
Virtue starts with devotion to parents and elders, which the book calls the root of benevolent actions.13
Ritual and propriety
Li, ritual and proper forms, lets people reconcile their desires with respect for others.1
In its own words
The Master said, “Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? “Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters
The superior man bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all practical courses naturally grow up. Filial piety and fraternal submission
The Master said, “At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. “At thirty, I stood firm. “At forty, I had no doubts. “At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven. “At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth
Yû, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;—this is knowledge
not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself; to have no murmuring against you in the country, and none in the family
The shape of the book
519 chapters, 27,458 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Tradition says disciples kept records of what Confucius said and, after his death in 479 BCE, edited them together. Scholars hold that much of the text came together in the Warring States period, between 475 and 221 BCE, and took its final form under the Han dynasty. By the Song dynasty it ranked as one of the Four Books. Han sources record Lu, Qi and an Old Text version found in a wall of Confucius's home. The text has been widely read in China for over two thousand years. The site carries James Legge's English translation.
Free to read elsewhere
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Sources
- Analects (Wikipedia)
- Confucius (Wikipedia)
- Analects, translated by James Legge (Standard Ebooks)
- Qufu (Wikipedia)
Text: PG 3330 | translator: James Legge. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).