論 語 Lun Yu – The Analects of Confucius

« While there may be some truth to the claim that in the West, every person is born either a Platonist or an Aristotelian, it is A.N. Whitehead's apothegm, 'All of Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato', that, mutatis mutandis, resonates best with the Chinese context. For indeed, all of Chinese thinking is a series of commentaries on Confucius. » is what is written in the Routledge article about Confucius and Confucianism. The "first chinese teatcher" (Feng Yulan) has fascinated Voltaire and decieved Hegel. One can see him as a Chinese Christ, or as a materialist, or as a moral idealist, or as a king without kingdom. Sure, he was concerned with social troubles of his times and wanted the Rites to order and pacify human beings, and replace the "Jungle's law", so he was also a great politician, who strongly influenced the bigger part of the last living ancient civilisation. At the end of his life, considering he had no sucess in the realisation of his ideas, he worried about prosperity. But now, two thousand years and a half after, his personality and moral influence is always alive in China and all over the world.

In the Lun yu, we can read shorts analects were the Sage lives and discuss with his disciples. This is maybe the first human scripture giving someone's detailed and realistic portrait.

Short biography : « The name Confucius is the latinized form of the Chinese characters, K´ung Foo-tsze, meaning, “The master, K´ung.” The bearer of this name was born of an ancient and distinguished family in the district of Tsow, in the present province of Shen-tung, China, B. C. 551. His father was a soldier of reputation and governor of Tsow, but not a man of wealth. Confucius married at nineteen, and in his early manhood held a minor office; but within a few years he became a public teacher, and soon attracted numerous disciples. Rising in reputation, he was invited to the court of Chow, where he investigated the traditional ceremonies and maxims of the ruling dynasty; and in the following year visited another state where he studied the ancient music. When he was nearly fifty, in the year 500 B. C., he again took office, becoming in turn chief magistrate of the town of Chung-too, Assistant-Superintendent of Works to the Ruler of Loo, and finally Minister of Crime. In spite of almost miraculous efficiency, he lost the support of his ruler in 496 B. C.; and until his death in 478 B. C., he wandered from state to state, sometimes well-treated, sometimes enduring severe hardships, always saddened by the refusal of the turbulent potentates to be guided by his beneficent counsels. No sooner was he dead, however, than his wisdom was recognized by peasant and emperor alike; admiration rose to veneration, veneration to worship. Sacrifices were offered to him, temples built in his honor, and a cult established which has lasted almost two thousand years.

Confucius did not regard himself as an innovator, but as the conservator of ancient truth and ceremonial propriety. He dealt with neither theology nor metaphysics, but with moral and political conduct.

The Lun Yu, Analects or Sayings of Confucius, were probably compiled, says Legge, “by the disciples of the disciples of the sage, making free use of the written memorials concerning him which they had received, and the oral statements which they had heard, from their several masters. And we shall not be far wrong, if we determine its date as about the beginning of the third, or the end of the fourth century before Christ.” » Cf. this page.

• Original text in traditional Chinese was found on this page.
• English translation : Legge, James. The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, 1861. Found here.
• Traduction française : R. P. Séraphin Couvreur (1835-1919), with Zhu Xi's commentaries (1130-1200, Song dyn.).
• Another English translation : Lau, D. C. Confucius: The Analects. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1979. Found here.

• Lunyu yinde (A Concordance to the Analects of Confucius) 論語引得. Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, Supplement 16.
• ICS Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series, 33.

• Waley, Arthur. The Analects of Confucius. London: Allen and Unwin, 1938.
• Les Entretiens de Confucius. Traduit du chinois, présenté et annoté par Pierre Ryckmans, Gallimard « Connaissance de l'Orient », 1987.