Confucius is one of the most influential figures—as historical individual and as symbol—in world history; and the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius and his disciples, is a classic of world literature. Nonetheless, how to understand both figure and text is constantly under dispute. Surprisingly, this volume is the first and only anthology on these topics in English. Here, contributors apply a variety of different methodologies (including philosophical, phililogical, and religious) and address a number of important topics, from Confucius and Western "virtue ethics" to Confucius' attitude toward women to the historical composition of the text of the Analects. Scholars will appreciate the rigor of these essays, while students and beginners will find them accessible and engaging.
| Contributors | ||
| 1 | Introduction | 3 |
| Pt. I | Keeping Warm the Old | |
| 2 | Naturalness Revisited: Why Western Philosophers Should Study Confucius | 39 |
| 3 | Ren [actual symbol not reproducible] and [actual symbol not reproducible] in the Analects | 53 |
| 4 | "What Does Heaven Say?": Christian Wolff and Western Interpretations of Confucian Ethics | 73 |
| 5 | Conformity, Individuality, and the Nature of Virtue: A Classical Confucian Contribution to Contemporary Ethical Reflection | 94 |
| Pt. II | Appreciating the New | |
| 6 | Whose Confucius? Which Analects? | 119 |
| 7 | Confucius and the Analects in the Han | 134 |
| 8 | Word Philology and Text Philology in Analects 9:1 | 163 |
| 9 | Unweaving the "One Thread" of Analects 4:15 | 216 |
| 10 | An Existentialist Reading of Book 4 of the Analects | 237 |
| 11 | A Woman Who Understood the Rites | 275 |
| An Annotated Bibliography of Works on Confucius and the Analects | 303 | |
| Conversion Charts | 321 | |
| Index Locorum | 327 | |
| General Index | 333 |
Overview
Confucius is one of the most influential figures—as historical individual and as symbol—in world history; and the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius and his disciples, is a classic of world literature. Nonetheless, how to understand both figure and text is constantly under dispute. Surprisingly, this volume is the first and only anthology on these topics in English. Here, contributors apply a variety of different methodologies (including philosophical, phililogical, and religious) and address a number ...