Confucius, the Analects: The Path of the Sage—Selections Annotated & Explained
By Rodney L. Taylor, PhD and James Legge
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About this ebook
The wisdom of Confucius, China's greatest teacher and sage, can guide each of us in our own time.
Twenty-six centuries after their origination, the principles laid down in the Analects of Confucius still act as the foundation of Chinese philosophy, ethics, society and government, and play a formative role in the development of many Eastern philosophies. In this intriguing look at the ethical and spiritual meaning of the Analects, Rodney L. Taylor, the foremost American researcher of Confucius as a religious and spiritual figure, explains their profound and universal wisdom for our own time. He shows how Confucius advocates learning and self-cultivation to follow the "path of the sage" or “Way of Heaven”—a journey that promises to promote reason, peace and understanding.
Alongside an updated version of the classic translation by Sinologist James Legge, Taylor provides informative and accessible commentary that illuminates the meaning behind selected passages from the Analects and their insights on character development, respect and reverence, and the nature of learning, goodness, truthfulness and righteousness.
Rodney L. Taylor, PhD
Rodney L. Taylor, PhD, the foremost American researcher of Confucius as a religious and spiritual figure, is author of The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism, The Way of Heaven, The Confucian Way of Contemplation and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Confucianism, among other books. He is professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he also served as director of Asian studies, chair of the Department of Religious Studies and associate dean of the Graduate School.
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Confucius, the Analects - Rodney L. Taylor, PhD
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When a parent dies, the child buries the parent in the earth.
When a child dies, the parent buries the child in their heart.
Korean proverb
To the memory of our daughter Meghan (1978–2003)
Confucius, the Analects:
The Path of the Sage—Selections Annotated & Explained
2011 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing
Introduction, revised translation, and annotations © 2011 by Rodney L. Taylor
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to SkyLight Paths Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to permissions@skylightpaths.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Confucius.
[Lun yü. English. Selections]
Confucius, the analects : the path of the sage : selections annotated & explained / annotation by Rodney L. Taylor ; translation by James Legge ; revised by Rodney L. Taylor. — Quality paperback ed.
p. cm. — (Skylight illuminations series)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59473-306-2 (quality pbk.)
1. Confucius. Lun yu. I. Taylor, Rodney Leon, 1944– II. Legge, James, 1815–1897. III. Title. IV. Title: Path of the sage.
PL2478.L37 2011
181'.112—dc22
2011000886
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover Design: Walter C. Bumford III, Stockton, Massachusetts
Cover Art: Confucius Temple, Shanghai, China © TMAX #3554187 / fotolia.com
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Contents
Introduction
1. Opening the Analects: The Pursuit of Learning
2. Confucius’ Humanity
3. The Noble Person
4. On Filial Piety
5. Ritual and Music
6. The Nature of Learning
7. Truthfulness and Righteousness
8. The Teaching of Goodness
9. The Single Thread
10. Reflections on Tradition
11. The Way of Heaven
12. Closing the Analects: Learning for the Self
Acknowledgments
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
About SkyLight Paths
Copyright
Introduction
A Living Tradition
A number of years ago, as a young scholar, I studied in Kyoto, Japan. My field of research then as now was Confucianism. As my time in Japan unfolded, I was engaged in translating a work of Okada Takehiko, a professor at Kyushu University and a great scholar of Confucianism, from Japanese. I wrote to him to ask for clarification of certain sections of his work, and he invited me and my wife to come visit him in Fukuoka, far from Kyoto on the southern island of Kyushu.
My first meeting with Okada Takehiko was remarkable, as were the subsequent years of interaction between us. He had come to the train station to meet us. As we rode together in the taxi to our hotel he turned to me and said that he believed the world was in profound moral decline and then asked me what we could do about it! This was not an abstract scholarly question, but a plea from a heart and mind that felt the disarray of the contemporary world caught without a moral rudder to bring it back on course.
Through our relationship, I came to understand that Confucianism is not a historical relic of a philosophical value system, but a living tradition of great religious and spiritual depth. The teaching of Confucianism can be summarized, as Okada explained to me, by suggesting that we must turn to live with the moral goodness inherent within us, just as the universe itself embodies goodness, and through that goodness we come to realize ourselves, our relation with our families, our society, our world, and the universe itself. As Okada would say, we simply need to realize the basic premise of Confucius’ teaching, his teaching of goodness, which is found in the text known as the Analects, the record of the sayings of Confucius. This teaching has played a central role in the life and cultures of East and Southeast Asia for the past twenty-five hundred years.
Confucius: The Man and the Message
Who is this man Confucius, and what is this work called the Analects, that twenty-five hundred years later people are still discussing his ideas, attempting to emulate his teachings, and suggesting that those teachings are as relevant today as they were in his own time? What can we derive from reading these words of an ancient Chinese thinker in our own lives and our own time? Can these teachings change the way we look at ourselves, at our world, at the aspirations and goals of our lives? Can these teachings bring peace and understanding to each person and to the world, as Confucius himself hoped? Can we find an answer to who we are and the nature of the quest that occupies each of our lives?
Confucius speaks in remarkably simple words and a gentle tone, yet the meaning of his teachings can occupy a lifetime of learning. As his own disciples said of him, his depth and his wisdom know no bounds. Trying to penetrate them, you find that they are only deeper and always beyond full grasp (Analects IX:10). However many steps are taken, his own depth of understanding lies always ahead (Analects XIX:23). Throughout East and Southeast Asia his words have provided a foundation for defining our ultimate nature—the moral nature that is central to our being and to the universe itself. His message moves the individual toward that realization of goodness, what we can refer to as the path of the sage.
Confucius’ Life of Learning
Confucius (551–479 BCE) was born in the state of Lu, a small state now part of Shantung province. His personal name was K’ung Ch’iu, a son in the K’ung family. The family appears to have descended from a noble family but was impoverished by the time of Confucius’ birth. His father is said to have died when Confucius was very young and his mother died when he was sixteen. Virtually nothing is known about his childhood, though he apparently married when he was eighteen. His own autobiographical statement in the Analects asserts that he began his learning at fifteen (Analects II:4), though we have no details about either the context or the content of this learning. What we do know is that his reputation for learning and teaching appears to have grown rapidly and with it he eventually came to be called K’ung Tzu, Master K’ung, or K’ung Fu Tzu, Great Master K’ung, the latter Latinized by the Jesuits centuries later into the name we all recognize, Confucius.
Confucius is considered to have been a member of a class of people known as ju, which became the standard term for Confucianism with its rise to prominence following Confucius’ death. The term itself actually means weakling
and refers to the class of people who were scholars; that is, they were weak
because they did not work with their bodies, but with their minds! Confucius himself is portrayed in the Analects as someone who simply loves learning, the learning of the ancient sages, sheng, and desires to teach their learning in the hope that it can provide a path for people, society, and the world at large to come to the ways of goodness. To fulfill the teachings of the sages, for Confucius, was to transform the world into a state of goodness. Confucius’ role was a simple