| Chapter 1: | The Rationale for Reading the Analects Existentially |
|
|
fewer scholarly attempts, especially in the West, have tended to treat the Analects in its entirety.9 Because the textual issues of the Analects have significant bearing on the interpretation of Confucian ideas, it is fitting to review the textual history of the Analects and the attending critical scholarship.
The Earliest Occurrence of the Name of the Work
The Analects, the name popularized in the West through James Legge’s translation, comes from the Chinese title Lunyu (
),10 a term that has been subject to various interpretations. One interpretation renders lun
(
) as reasoned and yu (
) Lunyu means reasoned speech.11 According to another interpretation, lun means discussion, and yu refers to the meaning of a text; thus Lunyu means discussing the meaning of the text.12 But these interpretations are not accurate. According to Yang Bojun (
), lun means compile in an orderly way, and yu means language. I would suggest, furthermore, that although lun does indeed mean compilation, yu is more accurately understood as conversation. The title of the book therefore should be translated Compiled Conversations, or Conversations as Discourse.13
When did the appellation Lunyu first appear? According to the noted critical thinker of the Eastern Han period Wang Chong (
; 27–97 CE), it was Kong Anguo (
; dates unknown), a descendant of Confucius who lived in the reign of Emperor Wudi of the Han (140–88 BCE), who first used the term Lunyu to designate the work for teaching purposes.14 Yet the Fangji (
) chapter of Liji (
; The book of the rites)15 mentions the book title Lunyu; moreover, the sentence quoted there comes verbatim from the Analects 1:11 and 4:20.16 Although it is unknown exactly when the Fangji chapter was written, this text certainly predates Emperor Wudi of the Han.
Three Versions of the Analects
In spite of the notorious book burning committed by the first emperor of Qin (r. 246–210 BCE) in the Han dynasty, three versions of the Analects—namely, the Lu, the Qi, and the Old Script versions—have