I just finished reading "The Analects of Confucius" for my first time. This was, once again, an Easton Press version from my 100-Greatest-Books subscription. It's a typically beautiful copy. I can't speak to its translation or to the astuteness of the notes, but I enjoyed the book. It's worth noting that, although I have nearly all one hundred of the books in the collection, there has been very little philosophy.
There is a lovely portrait of Confucius inside.
The book has a unique flow in that it doesn't follow a narrative path really. Each chapter is broken up into many sections - some of which are just a sentence long and some of which are a few paragraphs. They don't transition from one another, though, so it feels like it jumps around a lot from thought to thought. That said, it is organized into themes - I'm including an image of the table of contents so you can see how it is broken up.
Confucius was a moral philosopher, like Socrates, but also had a strong focus on appearances and propriety as well. Not to say that those things aren't also moral...in a meaningful way, I believe it is. It lends itself to establishing and maintaining a good harmony within oneself and with others.
At one point in the book, Confucius notes that all of his knowledge "...is strung on one connecting thread." This thread is implied to be the moral life at the time of the statement, but, later in the book, a more transparent statement is made, revealing the core principles to be loyalty to oneself and charity to one's neighbor. Even later, he encourages one to cherish harmony and self-control, which are consistent with the core principles noted previously. It's just an illustrative clarification of what the core principles involve.
There are also some broad statements that seem difficult to apply to one's life but that do inspire one to ponder. Thought is, after all, intrinsic to intelligent living, and the book presents a noble mixture of practical statements and more esoteric ones. By 'esoteric one,' I mean things that are difficult or impossible to fully understand. But reaching for understanding is one of the worthwhile pursuits that a living person can have in my view. By way of example, though this statement is from one of Confucius's disciples rather than from Confucius himself: "Before we know what life is how can we know what death is?" How indeed...Think about it.
The image below is an artist's rendition of one of the six chief Confucian virtues: thought. The six chief Confucian virtues are: filial piety, humanity, loyalty, integrity, thought, and sincerity.
I felt obligated to share a particular quote that seemed incredibly brilliant to me. Almost inherently true - at least as much so as a human can hope to speak. "Without due self-restraint, courtesy becomes oppressive, prudence degenerates into timidity, valor into violence, and candor into rudeness." Wow. He's right....self-restraint is a critical part of keeping one's life centered and balanced....to be a better person and to behave better (which is not the same thing).
The below image is an artist's rendition of another of the six chief Confucian virtues: integrity.
Later in the book, the fact that Confucius had a son is mentioned almost in passing. Po Yu. I wondered more about his story and his journey through life. What would it be like to grow up under the parentage of someone like Confucius? What, I wonder, was their relationship like? I find myself pondering about his son much like I've pondered Confucius's sayings. It's intriguing to me.
This book made me reflective while I read it, and I imagine that reflectiveness will resonate for a while afterwards. I'm glad that I read it, and I enjoyed the journey.
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