The Analects (Chinese-English)

Lun Yu, the Analects of Confucians
Translated into English by Arthur Waley
Translated into Modern Chinese by Yang Bojun
Book dimensions 960 x 640, 1/16, hardcover, 345 pages
Hunan People's Publishing House and Foreign Languages Press, 1999
ISBN: 7543820889

The Analects is a Confucian 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.

Based on careful and detailed textual research, the English translation of this edition is a complete one of great influence, one of good translations.