| Chapter 1: | The Rationale for Reading the Analects Existentially |
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did; among them was his son, Boyu. Illness can often be healed and therefore allows some measure of hope, but death is the end of physical life, a change from which it is impossible to recover. It greatly affects those dear to the deceased. In the face of a loved one’s death, moreover, one tends to reflect upon the meaning of one’s own life; thus the finitude of life is even more poignantly felt. In the Analects, four passages are devoted to the death of Confucius’s favorite disciple, Yan Hui (
). Being a sage teacher, Confucius rarely allowed his emotions to run out of control. But regarding the death of Yan Hui, Confucius at first expressed great indignation—“Heaven has bereft me! Heaven has bereft me!” (11:9)—and refused to be comforted. Analects 11:10 records: 
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(When Yan Yuan [Hui] died, in weeping for him, the Master showed undue sorrow. His followers said, “You are showing undue sorrow.” “Am I? Yet if not for him, for whom should I show undue sorrow?”).
Confucius felt the untimely loss of his favorite disciple deeply, although as time passed his wound was healed and he came to terms with the loss. When Duke Ai asked him about his favorite disciple, Confucius said that Yan Hui’s life had been cut short by fate (6:3). Death, then, is a human condition often associated with fate or destiny, but for Confucius it could also be transcended. Death no longer stings if one’s virtue is great enough to enable one to know the will of Heaven. Indeed, once when he was threatened with death, Confucius calmly said, “Heaven is the author of the virtue that is in me. What can Huan Tui do to me?” (7:23).
Poverty
Poverty, too, is a human condition from which most people desire to escape. It is a topic that engenders much conversation between Confucius and his disciples. Confucius asserted that if an opportunity to get rich presented itself, he would take it, but he would do so only if it were the right way. Otherwise, he considered riches as a floating cloud that leaves no trace (7:16). He meant to say that riches and honor gained unrighteously would have no substance. From what is recorded in the Analects,