Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

Notes 209Leys (Pierre Ryckmans), The Analects of Confucius (New York: W.W. Nortonand Co., 1997 ); the translations are readable and the books include goodintroductions to the text.19 I will give a brief description of these texts as we go along, but for a morecomplete description, see chapter 8.20 For discussions about the composition of the Analects , see Bryan Van Norden,“ Introduction ” in Confucius and the Analects: New Essays , ed. Bryan VanNorden (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002 ), 3 – 36. See also E. Bruceand Taeko Brooks, The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and HisSuccessors (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998 ), for a good descriptionof the theories around the formation of the text and their own proposalthat the Analects is layered in four levels. For a description of a numberof the versions of the Analects and related texts from the Han, see MarkCsikszentmihalyi, “ Confucius and the Analects in the Han ” in Van Norden(ed.), Confucius and the Analects: New Essays , 144f.21 Analects 5.10.22 Analects 10.17.23 For a painstaking examination of the issues involved in the accounts ofConfucius ’ life, see Shigeki Kaizuka, Confucius: His Life and Thought , trans.Geoffrey Bownas (New York: Macmillan, 1956 ).24 His dates are tentatively given as 624 – 529 BCE. For a reference to He ofZou, traditionally identified as Confucius ’ father, see the Zuo Zhuan , DukeXiang, 10th year (563 BCE); compare Watson, The Tso Chuan [Zuo Zhuan] ,139.25 In some stories, we are told that her first son was deformed and so unable toperform sacrificial rituals. Confucius was a second son.26 Later, as was customary, taking another name or “ style, ” Zhongni.27 Some scholars are suspicious of the reports of Confucius ’ rise in rank in thegovernment of Lu that we find in the traditional stories. They think that, as timewent on, there was a gradual addition to Confucius ’ rank. See, for example,David L. Hall and Roger Ames, Anticipating China: Thinking through theNarratives of Chinese and Western Culture (Albany: State University of NewYork Press, 1995 ), 201.28 Analects 9.6.29 For a discussion of the use of the word “ knight ” as noble or true manhood,based on noble birth, see Lewis, Sanctioned Violence , 32.30 Enumerated in The Book of History , “ Shun Dian , ” and in the Zhou Li .“ Accomplishments ” is often translated as “ arts, ” but they were skills, not fineart, crafts, or techniques.31 Analects 2.2. The Book of Poetry is a collection of 305 poems and songs,taught by Confucius and, it was believed in the past, edited by him. The poemsinclude everything from praise of the early Zhou rulers to romantic love poems.See chapter 8.32 Analects 16.13.33 Analects 17.9.34 Analects 7.32.35 Analects 11.26.