An Analysis of the Book The Analects by Confucius

Analysis, Pages 7 (1508 words)

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In this paper, I am going over what The Analects are and what they are about. The Analects were written by Confucius' followers, they documented what Confucius talked about, who he talked to, and what he believed in. The main points that are talked about in The Analects are filial piety, junzi and education. Filial piety most simply translates to respect your elders, junzi is how a person should act or think and The Analects also mention the importance of education.

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To this day, The Analects is still a big part of China and it's people.

The man we now know as Confucius died believing his lessons and beliefs had not made any important contributions to China and it's culture. He died November 21st, 479 B.C and soon after, his followers held a funeral and a mourning period in honor of Confucius. As time went on, he was thought of as a sage who deserved more recognition than he was given when he was alive.

As time went by, around the second century B.C, his ideas became more well known and were getting used more and more often by everyone in China.

Even in 2017 his ideas and beliefs are a huge part of Chinese culture. One of the most famous works in China is called The Analects, which was created by Confucius's disciples as a way of honoring Confucius and his philosophy. It included his conversations with his followers important lords and rulers, his sayings, beliefs, thoughts, and morals. It is the foundation of Chinese government and morals.

There are three essential themes in The Analects, by Confucius: filial piety, junzi, and education.

According to Confucius (2015), one of the most important themes that is portrayed in The Analects is filial piety. As stated in the book, "A young man should be filial within his home and respectful of elders when outside, should be careful and trustworthy, broadly caring of people at large, and should cleave to those who are ren. If he has energy left over, he may study the refinements of culture" (Confucius, 2015, p. 6). This gives us insight as to what filial piety means, which is respect others, and especially older people, as they know and have experienced more than you. As the books went on, Confucius and his followers discussed this multiple times. They did not always use the same terminology, and sometimes just used respect as the replacement for filial piety. This can be seen in the quote above.

Another example occurs when Confucius stated "when one has several times urged one's parents, observe their intentions; if they are not inclined to follow your urgings, maintain respectfulness and do not disobey; labor on their behalf and bear no complaint." (Confucius, 2015, p. 16) Being disrespectful all his life, Yuan Rang sat as Confucius lectured him saying "As a youth disobedient and disrespectful to your elders, as an adult accomplishing nothing worth speaking of, old and still not dead – nothing but a thief!" (Confucius, 2015, p. 81) proceeding to hit him with his cane. He was supposedly an equal of Confucius, possibly even a friend, who had never truly shown respect to others. This may be conceived as a marker of how important respect was to Confucius. To him, respect was important for many reasons.

It's not only just to give respect, It's also to learn from other people, mostly older people. Without education, history would just repeat itself. Learning from others thoughts and experiences gives a different perspective on everything. You can learn so much more from someone else's experiences, and it can actually help you out in the end, making you wiser. Another one of Confucius's (2015) recurring themes is called Junzi, which is somethinga person is if they have certain qualities and characteristics such as being ethical or other positive traits.

An example of what Junzi is in text is, "The Master said, the Junzi perfects what is beautiful in people, he does not perfect what is ugly. The small man does just the opposite". (Confucius, 2015, p. 15) The text indicates that the Junzi focuses on the important qualities of people that are positive, like being thoughtful, selfless, etc. whereas the "small man" who is not Junzi, from what people suspect means a young male servant, tends to look at the more negative things such as, greed, laziness, etc.

The Master said, "What a boor you are, You! A Junzi keeps silent about things he doesn't understand.” (Confucius, 2015, p. 66) The master, also known as Confucius is trying to show that the Junzi tend to do before they speak, action over words. It also appears they seem to be more rational than most other people are from what this text says, "Confucius said, The Junzi has three cautions. When he is young and his blood and energy are not yet settled, he is cautious about sex. When he is in his prime and his blood and energy have newly achieved strength, he is cautious about combativeness. When he is old and his blood and energy are declining, he is cautious about acquisitiveness" (Confucius, 2015, p. 91).

This is meant to mean that a person who is Junzi is not impulsive, they tend to think before they do. In conclusion, Junzi is an important title that explains what a good person is. Instead of giving into greed, pride, and other negative things, The Junzi focus on being kind, generous, honest, courteous, etc. Confucius considers this to be important, leaders and other people with important roles in society should be Junzi, it will move everyone forward and eventually blend and mix everything, inspiring people to become better.

The last theme in The Analects is education. Confucius always talked highly about education, which makes sense considering he was considered to be teacher after all. He always talked about how you may know things without true education, but you will easily expand your knowledge with education in your life. He lived off of teaching, but would accept students both wealthy and poor. He mostly lived off of the wealthy students, but that didn't stop him from teaching those that may come from a lower class, without much money.

Confucius showed how important education was to him with this quote, "The Master said, there may be some who invent without prior knowledge. I am not such a one. To listen to much, select what is good, and follow it; to observe much and to mark it in memory - these are second to knowledge". (Confucius, 2015, p. 34) This quote implies that knowledge can sometimes be natural, but is considered rare. Confucius then goes on to say that learning is the ladder to having knowledge, and it will put you on the same level or even higher than people that have natural knowledge.

Confucius later stated "Those who are born knowing are the best; next are those who study and come to know it; next are those who study it only in circumstances of duress. Those who do not study it even under duress, they are the lowest of people" (Confucius, 2015, p. 92). Confucius seemed to be disappointed with those who do not educate themselves unless truly needed, and enjoys the fact that some students he teaches do not want education just for a good job, but to understand more and learn.

However, Confucius and his followers don't think just having an education is important, they also believe that doing work and labor is also important, being the most productive when put those two things together. This can be found in a quote, “A man in service who is superior should study; a man who is superior in study should serve". (Confucius, 2015, p. 106). So in short, Education is talked about many times in The Analects, But it was never viewed as the most important thing. It was best to mix both education and hard work to advance in life, and help others.

So, in conclusion, the book I analyzed was The Analects, which was created by Confucius's disciples. It included many aspects from Confucius's life such as, his teachings, his thoughts, his beliefs, his morals, so they would not be lost in time. The Analects (2015) by Confucius contain three essential themes. Filial piety was extremely important to Confucius and his followers. It was shown as giving respects to those who are older, but also was used to learn from wiser and older people. Without learning about the past and their mistakes, history will repeat itself and the country will never improve or advance.

Junzi is a term for someone who is careful in their speech (Confucius, 2015, p. 3) acts before they speak and speaks according to actions (Confucius, 2015, p. 6). The last topic was Education, Confucius and his followers thought highly of education, but also thought hard work was important too. With an even balance of both, a person would be the best they could be. Even though it is an extremely old piece of text, it has survived the years all the way to now, 2017. Even to this day Confucius's ideas and beliefs are used in Chinese culture and government.