Analects of Confucius

The Analects ( 論語; 论语; Lùn Yǔ ), also known as the Analects of Confucius, are a record of the words and acts of the central Chinese thinker Confucius and his disciples, as well as the discussions they held. The Chinese title literally means "discussion over [Confucius'] words."

Written during the Spring and Autumn Period through the Warring States Period (ca.479 BC - 221 BC ), the Analects is the representative work of Confucianism and continues to have a huge influence on Chinese and East Asian thought and values today.

The Analects are believed to have been written over a period of 30 to 50 years. Begun some time during the Spring and Autumn Period, the work was probably finished during the Warring States Period, though the exact publication date of the first complete Analects cannot be pinpointed. Much like the Plato's Republic in Greece, the Analects were almost certainly penned and compiled by disciples and second-generation disciples of Confucius, albeit being mostly about Confucius himself and his thought.

Chapters in the Analects are grouped by individual themes. However, the chapters are not arranged in any way so as to carry a continuous stream of thought or idea. In fact, the sequence of the chapters could be said to be completely random, with the themes of adjacent chapters unrelated to each other at all.

Moreover, certain vital themes recur repeatedly in different chapters, sometimes in exactly the same wording and sometimes with small variations. This has lead some to believe that the book was not written by one person alone, but was the collective effort of many. However, the final editors of the Analects were likely disciples of Zengzi (曾子), who was one of the most established students of Confucius.

By the time of the Han Dynasty, there existed three versions of Analects – Lu Analects (魯論語/鲁论语), Qi Analects (齊論語/齐论语) and Ancient Text Analects (古文論語/古文论语). Lu Analects and Qi Analects were mostly similar, but Qi Analects had two extra chapters – Question the King (問王/问王) and Know (知道) – on top of the twenty all three versions shared. On the other hand, the Ancient Text version divided the chapterZizhang (子張/子张) into two chapters, and therefore had twenty-one chapters. Its arrangement of chapters and text were also different from the former two versions to a large extent.

Towards the late Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Yu (張禹/张禹), who was a teacher of Emperor Cheng, combined the Lu and Qi versions of Analects but kept to the number of chapters in the Lu Analects. Zhang's version then came to be known as the Marquis Zhang Analects, which is largely the version we know today.