The Analects
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season100 pages, about 2 hours: half the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbConfucius’s opening saying pairs the joy of learning with the pleasure of old friends visiting.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, one credits the plot and 9 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA philosophy instructor’s Substack pairs it with the Tao Te Ching, on the shelf at 124 pages, in the same course cycle.
The case for it
on the cryptic method
“the method of presentation is purposefully cryptic, but for good reason and to great effect”
a Substack review on the loose sayings
“string them together like a popcorn garland on a Christmas tree”
a book blog on Slingerland’s translation
“offers a new perspective for Analects scholarship and a new model for Analects translation”
Yuet-Keung Lo · China Review International, 2004 on Dawson’s translation
“laid out in a fairly straight forward approach with no frills”
a book blog
The case against
on the structure
“There is no perceptible narrative line, no clear analytical progression or even sequence”
Jonathan Spence · The New York Review of Books, 1997 on Watson’s translation
“loss of sonority, loss of social difference, loss of political context”
E. Bruce and A. Taeko Brooks · The China Review, 2009 on the dated rules
“some of the rules in Confucius’ rule book are no longer relevant today”
a book blog on the aphorisms
“sometimes I just felt like I was in a fortune cookie factory”
a Substack review
