{"id":1148,"date":"2024-06-07T00:32:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T00:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2024-06-07T00:32:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T00:32:12","slug":"6-confucius-the-analects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/07\/6-confucius-the-analects\/","title":{"rendered":"6. Confucius – The Analects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ideas in the book are attributed to Confucius (551 – 479 BC). The book was completed by his followers around 400 BC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Original language: Classical Chinese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read the Simon Leys translation (2014), edited by Michael Nylan, published by W.W. Norton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the translator’s introduction:
“A classic is essentially a text that is open-ended — in the sense that it lends itself constantly to new developments, new commentaries, different interpretations.”
From the same, quoting Jorge Luis Borges:
“Readers create anew the books they read. Shakespeare is more rich today than when he wrote. Cervantes too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Analects itself — kind of boring. A few pithy phrases, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My overall impression of the Analects – boring and disappointing. Better than the Avesta (not saying much). Favorite line – (5.20) Lord Ji Wen always thought thrice before acting. Hearing this, the Master said: “Twice is enough.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ideas in the book are attributed to Confucius (551 – 479 BC). The book was completed by his followers around 400 BC. Original language: Classical Chinese. I read the Simon Leys translation (2014), edited by Michael Nylan, published by W.W. Norton. From the translator’s introduction:“A classic is essentially a text that is open-ended — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larrykooper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}