The Analects by Confucius

Prior historical knowledge required

The Analects is a collection of aphorisms, anecdotes, and other snippets of instruction compiled by followers of Confucius around 2,000 years ago. There are no doubt many different versions and editions of The Analects in English translation. The one I am reviewing is the ebook edition from Open Road Media, which is likely based on the public domain file of the James Legge translation from Project Gutenberg. There is no denying the importance of Confucius in Chinese history and Eastern philosophy, but how does The Analects hold up as a reading experience for the 21st century reader? To a Westerner, like myself, even if you habitually read philosophy, it is difficult to just pick up a copy of The Analects and extract the wisdom contained within it.

In form and structure, the Western text that most closely resembles The Analects would likely be the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The Analects is divided into 20 books, which are then divided into numerous chapters, most of which are only a sentence or a paragraph long. Some chapters consist of a few brief numbered passages. Like the Meditations, there is no discernible order to these chapters; for the most part they just fall where they may. While each individual chapter can be studied for its own merits, you’d really have to develop an intimate knowledge of the book as a whole in order to understand all the connections between the various chapters and form a complete picture of Confucian thought.

Though the teachings of Confucius form the basis for the Chinese religion of Confucianism, the philosophy of Confucius is really a secular philosophy that concentrates on ethics and politics rather than any metaphysical worldview. Confucius’s teachings were intended as training for scholars wishing to enter public service and work their way up the bureaucratic ladder of government. He also, however, looks into broader issues of ethics, interpersonal relations, right living, and personal happiness that may be relevant to anyone’s daily life. Some of the advice on governing may be applicable to the political and business worlds of today, but Confucius’s emphasis on knowing one’s place in the social strata is unlikely to be embraced by ambitious Western individualists. There are some similarities between The Analects and the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius in their advocation of resigning one’s self to the reality of one’s place in life. While the Stoic attitude might be simplistically summed up as, “You may be born a slave, but no one can enslave your mind,” the Confucian view in a nutshell might be something more like, “If you’re born a servant, be the best servant you can be.”

Just as the first book of the Meditations refers to a number of ancient Roman personages that the average modern reader is unlikely to be familiar with, The Analects is peppered with references to historical figures of China’s ancient past. Such references are pervasive throughout The Analects, to the point where you’d really need a master’s degree in Chinese history to figure out much of what’s being alluded to. There are plenty of passages that clearly state a code of conduct for right living, or list the admirable qualities of a superior man, but these are interspersed between anecdotes of dukes, government functionaries, and students of the Master, some of which seem to require prior knowledge of the characters mentioned. What’s a Westerner to make of such passages without detailed explanatory annotations? There is relevant wisdom in The Analects if you’re willing to dig for it, but rather than reading the original text most readers would probably be better off consulting a textbook that explains the teachings of Confucius in an orderly and accessible manner.
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San Zi Jing (Three Character Classic) by Anonymous

Confucian crib notes
The Three Character Classic, or San Zi Jing, is a Chinese text that dates to about the 13th century (according to Wikipedia. I have seen other sources that date it a millennium earlier.) Though it is sometimes attributed to various writers, it’s authorship is unclear and often listed as Anonymous. The book’s title refers to the fact that it is written in lines composed of three characters each. These three-character phrases are arranged into stanzas, each consisting of four lines. For centuries this book was used to introduce the basic concepts of Confucianism to children, and it also served as a beginning language text. Children were often required to memorize the complete text, which is less than 1200 characters long, much like Catholic children were required to memorize the Catechism.

The San Zi Jing is divided into five sections, or paragraphs. The first is an introduction to basic Confucian concepts like the three principles, five elements, five virtues, and so on. The second lists a number of Confucian Classics recommended for study. The third provides a history of the dynasties that ruled China. Paragraph four gives examples of individuals who exhibited behavior exemplifying the Confucian code. The fifth paragraph is a brief conclusion urging children to work hard and study diligently. 

Those learning the Chinese written language might think that a book that’s been memorized by millions of Chinese schoolchildren would be a good place to start. That’s not the case with this one, however. The vocabulary is by no means elementary. It contains a lot of obscure characters, many of them proper names. The three-character phrases are so condensed that they read more like abstract suggestions of sentences, rather than complete thoughts. It takes a lot of effort and imagination for a novice to derive an English translation from them. Often the San Zi Jing reads not like a text or a poem but rather as a mnemonic device. When it lists the “Six Classics,” for example, it abbreviates the titles of the six books to a mere six characters. The dynastic history of China is almost a roll of surnames presented in chronological order, with no dates and little elaboration. Such linguistic condensation makes it difficult for a Westerner unfamiliar with the subject matter to make much sense of it. For those hoping to decipher this Confucian classic, you need either a Chinese teacher to guide you through the process, or an annotated bilingual edition. 

As a source of knowledge about Chinese culture in general or Confucianism specifically, the Three Character Classic raises more questions than it answers, but that in itself is valuable. It is essentially a book of lists that offers a series of topics, each of which requires further investigation to comprehend. Though it only provides a shallow overview of the Confucian tradition, it is a good starting point for those hoping to gain a better understanding of Chinese history and culture. 

Project Gutenberg offers a free ebook of the San Zi Jing, in Chinese, unannotated. At least five of the book’s characters are missing, however, having been inexplicably replaced by empty boxes. The Kindle does a fine job of displaying Chinese characters in the ebook file, but for some reason it is unable to display such characters on its home page, so where the book is listed the title of San Zi Jing is replaced by three boxes with question marks. For online study, the Chinese language learning site Yellow Bridge provides the Three Character Classic in its entirety with English translation and explanatory notes.