The Analects
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Recorded or compiled by others
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~30,100 words · 143 passages
Cite this work
- APAConfucius. (n.d.). The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics) [The Analects]. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/confucius/the-analects-of-confucius-from-the-chinese-classics
- MLAConfucius. The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics) [The Analects]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/confucius/the-analects-of-confucius-from-the-chinese-classics.
- ChicagoConfucius. The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics) [The Analects]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/confucius/the-analects-of-confucius-from-the-chinese-classics.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Conversations and sayings of Confucius gathered by his disciples: how an upright person is formed, what a child owes, how a ruler should rule, and why ritual and study make virtue.
Context and history
Confucius (551-479 BC) did not write this book: generations of disciples compiled it after his death, during the Warring States period. Hence its air of fragments — brief scenes, replies, silences. No book has shaped the life of a civilisation more: for centuries the Chinese imperial examinations were built on its study, and knowing it was literally the road to power. Its imprint on education, family and state across East Asia reaches to the present day.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
2. The Master said, 'Hear much and put aside the points of which you stand in doubt, while you speak cautiously at the same time of the others:-- then you will afford few occasions for blame. See much and put aside the things which seem perilous, while you are cautious at the same time in carrying the others into practice:-then you will have few occasions for repentance. When one gives few occasions for blame in his words, and few occasions for repentance in his conduct, he is in the way to get emolument.' CHAP. XIX. The Duke Ai asked, saying, 'What should be done in order to secure the submission of the people?' Confucius replied, 'Advance the upright and set aside the crooked, then the people will submit. Advance the crooked and set aside the upright, then the people will not submit.' CHAP. XX. Chi K'ang asked how to cause the people to reverence their ruler, to be faithful to him, and to go on to nerve themselves to virtue. The Master said, 'Let him preside over them with gravity;-- then they will reverence him. Let him be filial and kind to all;-- then they will be faithful to him. Let him advance the good and teach the incompetent;-- then they will eagerly seek to be virtuous.' CHAP. XXI. 1.…