An Existential Reading of the Confucian Analects By Andrew Zhonghu Yan

An Existential Reading of the Confucian Analects By Andrew Zhon ...

Chapter 1:

The Rationale for Reading the Analects Existentially

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Confucius decided to return to his home state of Lu. After he had settled there, Confucius began teaching more students. In the meantime, he also edited the documents that were available to him. The Annals of the Spring and Autumn is generally attributed to him. He also found a new interest in The Book of Changes and through it, probed the deep questions of metaphysics and human existence.

Confucius passed away at the age of seventy-three. Sima Qian, upon whose biographical account of Confucius this brief narration is based, made the following comments:

Since the ancient time, there have been many kings and worthies. They generally had glories only when they were alive. When they died, the glories were gone. Confucius was born a plain-clothes commoner. For over ten generations now, the scholars still venerated him. From the Son of Heaven, kings and marquises, when “six arts” are mentioned, Confucius’s explanation was cited as the standard. Confucius, we may say, has been the greatest sage.⁵

Nearly two thousand years have passed since Sima Qian’s lifetime, and Confucius’s descendants run into the eightieth generation. Confucius is still well remembered by many not only in China but also beyond its borders. Why? One explanation could be sought in the imperial patronage of the cult of Confucius throughout the ages, as Nylan and Wilson’s book seems to show.⁶ But another explanation could be offered here: Confucius is remembered for his Analects. Some moderncritical scholarship attempts to dissociate the text from the person, but traditionally, scholarship has done no such thing. Though I respect the work of modern critical scholars on this text, I attempt here to read the Analects integrally, as it has been read throughout history.

The Text of the Analects

The received version of Confucius’s Analects as it survives today consists of twenty sections,⁷ and it is generally regarded as the most reliable source for Confucius’s thought.⁸ But critical scholarship throughout the centuries has taken the Analects apart in such a way that fewer and