The Canon / Foundational / Ancient Source Texts
Foundational · Spring & Autumn China
The Analects
Confucius (compiled by disciples)
Ancient Source TextsThe Analects is the compiled record of the sayings of Confucius, assembled by his disciples after his death. It gathers his teaching on virtue, learning and right relationship into brief exchanges that together form the foundation of the Confucian tradition.
Its governing conviction is that the ordering of the world begins in the cultivation of the individual character. Confucius locates the source of social harmony not in law or force but in sincerity of thought, the careful refinement of intention, and the disciplined practice of benevolence, ritual propriety and learning. The self is treated as the first field of work; only a mind made honest and humane can rightly order family, state and world.
As one of the central texts of Chinese civilization, it transmits a moral vision in which inner self-correction is the root of all outward order, and in which steady attention to one's own conduct and motives is the lifelong discipline through which a person becomes worthy of trust and capable of governing.
In its words
Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
Practices it teaches
Rectifying Oneself — ordering conduct through propriety and constant learning
For Confucius, the way to set the world right begins not outside but with oneself: order your own conduct, speech, and attention, and harmony radiates outward from there.
Cultivating Ren through Reciprocity — the one word to practise for life
At the centre of Confucius's teaching is ren — usually rendered "humaneness" or "benevolence," the disposition to meet others with genuine care.
Daily Self-Examination — the three questions at day's end
This is the Analects' best-known self-cultivation discipline: a short, fixed nightly inventory of one's own conduct.
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