The Analects of Confucius Chapter 1 | Listen and Learn Chinese Classic | Chinese-English Translation

The Analects of Confucius Chapter 1 | Listen and Learn Chinese Classic | Chinese-English Translation

Confucius Intro:
Confucius (Chinese：孔夫子； pinyin: Kǒng Fūzǐ； Wade-Giles: K'ung-fu-tzu)，lit. “Master Kung，”September 28， 551 BC - 479 BC) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher， whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese， Korean， Japanese， and Vietnamese thought and life.

His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality， correctness of social relationships， justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines， such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty(206 BC–220 AD). Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家). It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci， who was the first to Latinise the name as “Confucius.”

His teachings may be found in the Analects of Confucius (论语)， a collection of “brief aphoristic fragments”， which was compiled many years after his death. Modern historians do not believe that any specific documents can be said to have been written by Confucius，but for nearly 2，000 years he was thought to be the editor or author of all the Five Classics such as the Classic of Rites (editor)， and the Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) (author).

The Analects of Confucius Intro:
The Analects of Confucius is an anthology of brief passages that present the words of
Confucius and his disciples, describe Confucius as a man, and recount some of the events
of his life. The book may have begun as a collection by Confucius’s immediate disciples
soon after their Master’s death in 479 BCE. In traditional China, it was believed that its
contents were quickly assembled at that time, and that it was an accurate record; the English title, which means “brief sayings of Confucius,” reflects this idea of the text. (The
Chinese title, Lunyu 論語, means “collated conversations.”)

This online translation is posted to make it easier to locate an English rendering of
this important text with some basic commentary. It has been prepared for use in undergraduate teaching and is not meant to replace published scholarly editions. The interpretations reflected are my own, and in some cases do not represent consensus readings.

In this very brief introduction to the text, I will summarize a few features of Confucius’s life and social environment, review some basic ways in which the component
parts of the Analects are dated by analysts, on a very general level, and note some particular issues concerning key terms and translation, and of personal names.