AUTHOR:
Confucius
Language:
English-Chinese
267 pages
Published by Foreign Teaching and Study Press.

No other book in the entire history of the world has exerted a greater influence on a larger number of people over a longer period of time than this slim volume. The spiritual cornerstone of the most populous and oldest living civilization on Earth, the Analects has inspired the Chinese and all the peoples of East Asia with its affirmation of a humanist ethics. As the Gospels are to Jesus, the Analects is the only place where we can encounter the real, living Confucius. In this gem-like translation by Simon Leys, Confucius speaks with clarity and brilliance. He emerges as a man of great passion and many enthusiasms, a man of bold action whose true vocation is politics.

Confucius (551-479 B.C.) lived in an age of acute cultural and political crisis. Many of his observations mark a world sinking into violence and barbarity. Unable to obtain the leading political role he sought, he endeavored to reform society and salvage civilization through ethical debate, defining for ages to come the public mission of the intellectual.

The Analects is a Cofucian classic which appeared in book form in the early Warring States Period. Comprising 20 "books" or chapters, it is recorded of dialogues, stories, and anecdotes of Confucius, the philosopher and educator of ancient China and his disciples and students. While Confucius failed in his lifetime to rescue a crumbling civilization of the Zhou Dynasty with his teachings, he was to become the most influential sage in human history. His thought, still remarkably current and even innovative after 2500 years, survives here in The Analects-a collection of brief aphoristic sayings that has had a deeper impact on more people's lives over a longer period of time than any other book in human history.

The core of The Analects is benevolence, which Confucius thought was "loving people" or having "loyalty and consideration." To achieve benevolence, one had to use "rite" or "propriety" as a norm for "to subdue one's self and return to propriety is benevolence." What The Analects embodies is not only Confucius' ideal of human community as an integral part of a self-generating and harmonious cosmos, but his educational thought of "imposing no class distinction" and of teaching students according to their aptitude. It also reflects his sceptical attitude towards the supernatural.

Abstract:
1 The Master said, it is Goodness that gives to a neighbourhood its beauty. One who is free to choose, yet does not prefer to dwell among the Good-how can he be accorded the name of wise?
2 The Master said, Without Goodness a man
Cannot for long endure adversity,
Cannot for long enjoy prosperity.
The Good Man rests content with Goodness; he that is merely wise pursues Goodness in the belief that it pays to do so.
3, 4 Of the adage 'Only a Good Man knows how to like people, knows how to dislike them, the Master said, He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness will dislike no one.

1,2,3 The Master said, I have 'transmitted what was taught to me without making up anything of my own'. I have been faithful to and loved the Ancients. In these respects, I make bold to think, not even our old P'êng can have excelled me. The Master said, I have listened in silence and noted what was said, I have never grown tired of learning nor wearied of teaching others what I have learnt. These at least are merits which I can confidently claim. The Master said, The thought that 'I have left my moral power (te) untended, my learning unperfected, that I have heard of righteous men, but been unable to go to them; have heard of evil men, but been unable to reform them'-it is these thoughts that disquiet me.
4 In his leisure hours the Master's manner was very free-and-easy, and his expression alert and cheerful.
5 The Master said, How utterly have things gone to the bad with me! It is long now indeed since I dreamed that I saw the Duke of Chou.

1 The Master seldom spoke of profit or fate or Goodness.
2 A villager from Ta-hsiang said, Master K'ung is no doubt a very great man and vastly learned But he does nothing to bear out this reputation. The Master, hearing of it, said to his disciples, What shall I take up? Shall I take up chariot-driving? Or shall it be archery? I think I will take up driving!
3 The Master said, the hemp-thread crown is prescribed by ritual. Nowadays people wear black silk, which is economical; and I follow the general practice. Obeisance below the dais is prescribed by ritual. Nowadays people make obeisance after mounting the dais. This is presumptuous, and though to do so is contrary to the general practice, I make a point of bowing while still down below.
4 There were four things that the Master wholly eschewed: he took nothing for granted, he was never over-positive, never obstinate, never egotistic.

1 Tzu-lu asked about government The Master said, Lead them; encourage them! Tzu-lu asked for a further maxim. The Master said, untiringly.
2 Jan Yung, having become steward of the Chi Family, asked about government. The Master said, Get as much as possible done first by your subordinates. Pardon small offences. Promote men of superior capacity. Jan Yung said, how does one know a man of superior capacity, in order to promote him? The Master said, Promote those you know, and those whom you do not know other people will certainly not neglect.
3 Tzu-lu said, if the prince of Wei were waiting for you to come
and administer his country for him, what would be your first measure? The Master said, It would certainly be to correct language. Tzu-lu said, Can I have heard you aright? Surely what you say has nothing to do with the matter. Why should language be corrected? The Master said, Yu! How boorish you are! A gentleman, when things he does not understand are mentioned. Should maintain an attitude of reserve, If language is incorrect. Then what is said does not concord with what was meant; and if what is said does not concord with what was meant, what is to be done cannot be effected. If what is to be done cannot be effected, then rites and music will not flourish, if rites and music
1 So that your time may not be taken up with petty preliminaries
2 i.e. will certainly bring to your notice.
3 The 'chain argument' clanks rather heavily in English; but it is essential to preserve the form of the original.
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