Books That Matter: The Analects of Confucius

Getting a broader view of Confucius and his style of teaching; examining how the text's performative nature holds its diverse teachings together; exploring Confucius's mission to return China to a more harmonious era in its history.

The "Analects" should not just be read, but lived; how to enter the book's world by considering Confucius's imaginative ideas about living in society; practicing one's ability to navigate through the book's tangle of information and questions.

Who Confucius is; how he manages to become one of the most important figures in world history; what historians know about Confucius; the opinions of thinkers like Mencius and Xunzi; several illuminating passages from Chapter 10 of the "Analects".

The structure of the "Analects" offers a helpful way to understand the text's deeper meanings; breaking down Confucius's book into its chapters; the scattered nature of its tiny nuggets of knowledge; the generations of historical commentary.

Archeological discoveries are key to transforming the scholarly understanding of early Chinese texts; unearthing the oldest version of the "Analects", which comprises bamboo fragments found in a tomb; why there is no one single version of this work.

Approaching the "Analects" by going through its first five statements, which contain an entire world of philosophical knowledge; Professor LaFleur unpacks core themes in the passages, including individual conduct and effective statesmanship.