Unit 12 · Close Reading the Analects

The Analects begins with three questions from the Master. Legge’s 1893 translation gives them this way: "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters? Is he not a man of complete virtue, who feels no discomposure though men may take no note of him?"

Each question expects the answer yes. That is a rhetorical question: a question asked to make a point, not to get information. The form invites the listener to agree rather than ordering them to. Many readers think this gentle form suits a teacher talking with students.

The three questions move outward. The first is about the learner alone. The second is about friends who share the learning. The third is about the wider world, which may ignore the learner. Traditional commentators such as Zhu Xi read the order as a path from private study to public life.

The third question uses the phrase that Legge renders "a man of complete virtue." The Chinese term is junzi. It first meant the son of a ruler, a noble by birth. The Analects uses it for a person noble in character. Legge usually translates it as "the superior man."

Analects 1.1 begins "The Master said." Analects 1.2 does not. It begins with the words of Yu Zi, a disciple. Legge gives his name in the older spelling of his day. Close readers always check the opening line of a saying, because it tells you who is talking.

The Analects is a compilation: a book gathered from many sources by later hands. Most scholars think disciples and their own students collected the sayings over several generations after Confucius died, around 479 BCE by the traditional date. Some books may be later than others. Scholars still debate the order and the dates.

Because of this, a disciple can speak with real weight in the book. Yu Zi and Zeng Zi are even called "Zi," "master," a sign of respect. Some scholars read that title as a clue that their own followers helped shape the collection. So when you cite a line, name the speaker, not just "Confucius."

The Analects has 20 books. Each book holds short numbered chapters. A citation like 2.4 means book 2, chapter 4. Legge uses this book.chapter system, and most English translations follow it. That is why a reader can find the same passage in almost any edition.

The numbers are not perfect. Editors have sometimes split one saying into two chapters, or joined two into one. So book 10, for example, is numbered differently in some translations. A saying can be one number off. Careful writers name the translation they used, so a reader can find the same line.

The chapter numbers are not in the oldest texts. The early Chinese text was written as a stream of sayings. Later editors and commentators marked where each saying began. The numbering is a tool for readers. It is not part of what the disciples first wrote down.

James Legge was a Scottish missionary and scholar who spent many years in Hong Kong. He worked with Chinese scholars, including Wang Tao, on his translations. His first volume of the Analects came out in 1861, and a revised edition in 1893. Later he became the first professor of Chinese at Oxford.

Legge’s English sounds old today. He writes "the superior man" for junzi and "propriety" for li, the rites and good manners of the tradition. He puts his own added words in brackets or italics to show what is not in the Chinese. Modern translators often choose shorter words.

Because Legge’s translation is in the public domain, anyone may quote it freely. That is one reason this course uses it. Readers also note that Legge’s Christian background sometimes shaped his word choices. Scholars compare him with later translators to see where his readings are his own.

Analects 1.2 closes with a question from Yu Zi. Legge translates it: "Filial piety and fraternal submission!—are they not the root of all benevolent actions?" The saying uses a picture from farming. A plant grows from its root. Yu Zi suggests that goodness grows from how a person acts at home.

Xiao is the Chinese word Legge renders "filial piety." It means respect and care for one’s parents and ancestors. "Fraternal submission" is respect for older brothers. The word "benevolent" translates ren, the Analects’ word for full human goodness.

Readers have taken this saying in different ways. Many Confucian teachers read it as the order of learning: first home, then the wider world. Some modern critics worry that it puts family loyalty above fairness to strangers. Others answer that the root is where goodness starts, not where it ends.

A disciple named Ziyou asks about filial piety in Analects 2.7. The Master answers with a sharp comparison. In Legge’s words: "The filial piety of now-a-days means the support of one’s parents. But dogs and horses likewise are able to do something in the way of support;—without reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support given from the other?"

The point turns on the word reverence: deep respect shown in attitude and action. Food and a roof are needed. But the Master says they are not enough on their own. What makes care filial is the respect behind it. The comparison with animals is meant to make the listener stop and think.

Commentators read the dogs and horses line in two ways. One reading says people also feed their dogs and horses, so feeding parents is no special honor. Another says dogs and horses themselves serve people. Both readings reach the same end: support without reverence falls short of xiao.

Many families in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam and the Chinese diaspora still honor parents and ancestors in visible ways. At Qingming in spring, families visit graves and sweep them. Some families keep ancestor tablets at home and offer food or incense. Families in Illinois do these things too.

People connect these practices to xiao in different ways. For some it is a religious duty to ancestors. For others it is family memory and respect. Whether Confucian ancestor rites are religious is itself debated by scholars and by the families who keep them. This course names the views and does not settle it.

Modern readers also debate xiao’s limits. Some ask how it fits with a young person’s own choices. Some point out that tradition asked more of daughters-in-law than of sons. Others defend xiao as a strong bond across generations. Close reading helps: 2.7 asks for reverence, not blind obedience.

Analects 2.1 is one sentence long. Legge translates: "He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it." The image is taken from the night sky. The pole star seems to stay fixed while the others circle around it.

"Virtue" here translates de. In early Chinese, de meant a kind of moral power or pull. A person of de draws others without force. So the ruler in 2.1 does not chase the people. The people turn to him, the way the stars seem to turn around the pole.

An analogy compares two things to explain one of them. Analects 2.1 uses an analogy from astronomy to explain government. Readers ask where the analogy stops. Stars have no choice. People do. Some commentators say that is the point: good rule works like a natural pull, not a command.

Analects 2.3 sets two kinds of government side by side. Legge: "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good."

The saying is built as a parallel: two sentences with the same shape and different content. Laws are paired with punishments. Virtue is paired with propriety, or li. The results differ too. The first gives people a way to escape penalties. The second changes what they feel inside.

Later thinkers argued with this idea. The Legalist writers, such as Han Feizi, held that clear laws and firm rewards and punishments keep order. Confucian readers answered with 2.3. Many modern readers see a middle ground, with both laws and shared values. The Analects’ own position is clear: virtue and li work deeper.

Analects 2.4 is one of the best-known passages in the book. Legge’s version ends: "At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right." It is spoken in the first person, as the Master’s own story.

The stages move from effort to ease. At fifteen the Master sets his mind on learning. At thirty he stands firm. At fifty he knows the decrees of Heaven, Tian, the high power that early Chinese thought linked to order and fate. At seventy, what he wants and what is right no longer pull apart.

Readers use the passage in different ways. In Chinese, the ages have become common names: "standing firm" for thirty, for instance. Some readers take the passage as a model for anyone’s life. Others read it as one person’s reflection, a look back over his own growth. The text itself uses "I."

Analects 12.22 opens with a student named Fan Chi. Legge writes: "Fan Ch’ih asked about benevolence. The Master said, ’It is to love all men.’" Legge uses "benevolence" for ren. The Chinese word for "men" here, ren 人, means people in general, not only males.

Ren is the central virtue of the Analects. It is often translated goodness, humaneness or benevolence. The Chinese character joins the sign for a person with the sign for two. Many teachers point out this shape to suggest that ren lives between people. Scholars debate how much weight that picture can bear.

The Master gives different answers about ren to different students. To Fan Chi he says love people. To others he says other things. Many readers think he fits each answer to the person asking. So no single line defines ren. A close reader gathers several answers and compares them.

Analects 12.1 is the first chapter of book 12, and it also answers a question about ren. This time the student is Yan Hui, the Master’s favorite. Legge’s reply reads: "To subdue one’s self and return to propriety, is perfect virtue." Here Legge writes "perfect virtue" for ren.

The saying links ren with li, ritual and proper conduct. "Subdue one’s self" means holding back one’s own selfish wants. "Return to propriety" means acting in the proper forms. Yan Hui then asks for details. The Master tells him to look, listen, speak and move only in line with li.

Readers argue about how inner goodness and outer ritual fit together. Some stress that li shapes the heart over time, like practice shapes a musician. Others stress that ritual without real feeling is empty, which the Analects also says in other places. Many readers see ren and li as two sides of one way of life.

Yan Hui was poor. Analects 6.9 describes his life. Legge: "Admirable indeed was the virtue of Hui! With a single bamboo dish of rice, a single gourd dish of drink, and living in his mean narrow lane, while others could not have endured the distress, he did not allow his joy to be affected by it." The line about Hui’s virtue is repeated at the end.

The passage uses repetition: it opens and closes with the same line of praise. This frame tells the reader what matters most. The details in the middle, a bamboo dish and a gourd cup, make the poverty concrete. "Mean" in Legge’s English means poor and humble, not unkind.

Readers ask what Yan Hui’s joy came from. Many Confucian readers, including the Song dynasty scholars, took it as the joy of learning and goodness. It is not joy in being poor. The Analects also records that Yan Hui died young, and that the Master grieved deeply for him.

In Analects 15.23 Zigong asks for one word to guide a whole life. Legge’s Master answers: "Is not RECIPROCITY such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." Many readers call this a version of the Golden Rule, a rule found in many traditions about treating others as you would be treated.

The form matters. The saying tells you what not to do. Scholars call this the negative form. Other traditions state the rule in a positive form: do to others what you would want. Readers argue about the difference. Some say the negative form is more modest. Others say the two forms end up close.

Legge himself, in his notes, argued that the negative form is weaker than the positive one. Many later scholars, Chinese and Western, disagree with him. They point out that the Analects also has positive statements of the same idea, such as 6.28. The debate shows how a translator’s views can travel with his translation.

Analects 4.15 is a puzzle scene. The Master tells Zeng Zi that his teaching has one thread running through it. Zeng Zi says yes, and the Master leaves. The other disciples ask what he meant. Zeng Zi answers. Legge: "The doctrine of our master is to be true to the principles of our nature and the benevolent exercise of them to others,—this and nothing more."

Legge’s long phrase stands for two short Chinese words. The first is zhong, usually translated loyalty or doing one’s best. The second is shu, reciprocity. Legge’s wording is a reading, not just a translation. He explains the two words as he understands them. Modern translations are much shorter.

Notice who explains the thread. It is Zeng Zi, not the Master. Some scholars think Zeng Zi’s own followers helped shape this scene. Others take it as a faithful memory. Either way, readers link 4.15 with 15.23, where shu is named again. Reading the two together is a basic close-reading move.

Legge gives "reciprocity" for shu. Other translators have given "consideration," "like-hearted considerateness" or "understanding." Each choice points a reader somewhere. Reciprocity suggests a fair exchange. Consideration suggests imagining how another person feels. The Chinese character joins "like" or "as" with "heart."

Translation always involves choices. A connotation is the feeling or extra meaning a word carries beyond its dictionary sense. "Superior man" carries a feeling of rank. "Exemplary person" carries a feeling of example. Readers who know only English meet the Analects through these connotations.

This is why scholars compare translations. They look for places where the English adds or loses meaning. Legge’s notes help, because he explains his choices. When you write about the Analects, name your translation and, where it matters, show one other version beside it.

In Analects 13.3 the disciple Zilu asks what the Master would do first if he were asked to govern. The Master says he would make names correct. Zilu thinks this is a strange first step. The Master explains with a chain of results. Legge: "If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success."

This teaching is called the rectification of names. To rectify means to set right. The idea is that words like "ruler," "father" or "minister" should match what the person actually does. When they do not, trust breaks down. The chain in 13.3 goes on to rites, music, punishments, and finally the people.

The passage uses a chain argument: each step leads to the next. Readers have applied it to many things. Some use it to discuss honesty in public speech. Some scholars link it to Analects 12.11, "let the ruler be ruler," where roles and names also meet.

Analects 4.16 is a pair in one line. Legge: "The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain." "Conversant with" means familiar with, or thinking about. The Chinese for "mean man" is xiaoren, literally "small person."

The word for righteousness is yi: what is right or fitting to do. Many sayings in the Analects contrast the junzi and the xiaoren. The contrast is not about wealth or birth. It is about what a person’s mind turns to first. A poor person can be a junzi, as Yan Hui was.

Readers argue about how firm the line is. Some take it as two kinds of people. Others read it as two directions any person can face. The Analects never says profit is always wrong. Other passages say wealth gained rightly is fine. The point of 4.16 is what comes first.

Analects 4.15, the one thread, sits right before 4.16, the junzi and gain. Book 4 as a whole returns again and again to ren and the junzi. Many scholars think editors grouped sayings by theme. Reading one line alone, cut off from its neighbors, can miss that theme.

Here is a close-reading method. First, read the saying. Second, read two chapters before and after it. Third, note shared words, like ren, junzi or shu. Fourth, ask how the neighbors change or support your first reading. This is reading in context: the words and setting around a passage.

Context can also mean history. Confucius lived in a time of warring states and failing rulers. Many readers think this is why 13.3 cares so much about titles that no longer fit. Other readers stress that the sayings speak beyond their time. Both kinds of context help a reader avoid a quote pulled loose.

The Analects spread far beyond China. In Korea, Confucian learning shaped the Joseon dynasty’s schools and exams. In Japan, scholars such as Ito Jinsai read the Analects closely and challenged older commentaries. In Vietnam, royal exams tested the classics for centuries.

These readers did not simply copy Chinese views. Ito Jinsai, for example, argued for going back to the Analects itself rather than relying on Zhu Xi’s readings. Korean scholars debated human nature in long letters. Each place built its own tradition of reading: a line of teachers and books handed down.

Today the Analects is read in schools, homes and universities across East Asia and around the world. Some readers study it as philosophy. Some keep it as a family and cultural heritage. Some question parts of it. Close readers can meet all of these voices and describe them without ranking them.