Nonfiction · about 500 BC
The Analects of Confucius (From the Chinese Classics)
Confucius · translated by James Legge
The Analects of Confucius (From the Chinese Classics), first published in about 500 BC, has been pulled into the Bibliomancer archive: the complete text, carefully cleaned and typeset, free to read online. Its editorial introduction is still being prepared.
Contents
- Note
- Book I — Hsio R
- Book II — Wei Chang
- Chap. XXIV
- Book III — Pa Yih
- Chap. I — Confucius said of the head of the Chi family, who had eight rows of pantomimes in his area, ‘If he can bear to do this, what may he not bear to do?’
- Book IV — Le Jin
- Book V — Kung-Ye Ch’ang
- Book VI — Yung Yey
- Book VII — Shu R
- Book VIII — T’ai-Po
- Chap. I — The Master said, ‘T’ai-po may be said to have reached the highest point of virtuous action. Thrice he declined the kingdom, and the people in ignorance of his motives could not express their approbation of his conduct.’
- Book IX — Tsze Han
- Book X — Heang Tang
- Book XI — Hsien Tsin
- Book XII — Yen Yuan
- Chap. XXIV
- Book XIII — Tsze-Lu
- Book XIV — Hsien Wan
- Chap. I — Hsien asked what was shameful. The Master said, ‘When good government prevails in a state, to be thinking only of salary; and, when bad government prevails, to be thinking, in the same way, only of salary;—this is shameful.’
- Book XV — Wei Ling Kung
- Book XVI — Ke She
- Book XVII — Yang Ho
- Book XVIII — Wei Tsze
- Book XIX — Tsze-Chang
- Book XX — Yao Yueh
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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About the author
-552–-480 · Ancient
Confucius (traditionally 551–479 BC) was born in the small state of Lu, in what is now Shandong province, China, during the political fragmentation of the late Spring and Autumn period, and worked for a time in minor state administrative posts before spending much of his life travelling between rival states offering counsel to their rulers — advice largely unheeded in his own lifetime. He gathered a following of students to whom he taught a philosophy centred on ren (benevolence, humaneness), li (ritual propriety), and the cultivation of moral character as the true basis of good government, in explicit contrast to rule by law and punishment alone; he claimed only to transmit the wisdom of earlier sage-kings, not to originate it. He left no writings of his own; the Analects, a collection of his sayings and conversations compiled by his disciples and their own students after his death, is the primary source for his teaching. Largely obscure in influence during his own life, his philosophy was adopted centuries later as the ideological foundation of the Chinese imperial state and its civil service examinations, shaping East Asian ethics, education, and government for more than two thousand years.
Adjacent records
