The Analects of Confucius

US: Knopf Doubleday Publishing G., 1991. Paperback. Good. One of the most influential books of all time, The Analects of Confucius co llects the sayings and wisdom of the Chinese philosopher and his followers. Still as relevant today as they were over two thousand years ago, these te achings together present a moral code that values virtue above all, and mak e up the core values of the Confucian tradition. This edition includes a full introduction that gives the social and politic al background of the ancient work, analyses of key terms in Chinese thought , and a careful study of the history of the book and its interpretations. T here are also full notes illuminating the references to contemporary events and clarifying obscure passages. An essential work of literature and philo sophy, The Analects of Confucius has shaped generations of readers around t he world. Editorial Reviews "This fresh rendering of the Analects may come to be accepted as [Waley's] richest gift: fresh in time and in treatment." --The Listener - From the Publisher Because they offer diverse and sometimes diametrically opposite meanings, the words of Chinese classics are as likely to reflect the prejudices of the translator as the are to exhibit scholarly rigor. This volume is no exception. The publisher's biography of Leys calls him "an astringent observer," and such observations are readily apparent in Leys's sometimes bad-tempered and occasionally ill-judged glosses on a thinker whom he clearly believes would have agreed with him that late 20th-century culture is undergoing the same chaotic moral crisis as 6th-century B.C. China. While the translations are often elegant, and Leys's endnotes offer a few telling.