Works
The Analects
AN-uh-lekts; Lunyu: loon-YOO
Also Known As Lunyu
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A collection of sayings and short dialogues attributed to Confucius, compiled by his disciples and their own students after his death rather than written by him directly. Organized in twenty books of brief, often unconnected passages, it is the primary source for Confucius's own teaching on ritual propriety, humaneness and the cultivation of moral character, and became the founding text of the Confucian tradition.
Facts
Disputed
Publication YearCompiled in stages by successive generations of disciples over roughly a century after Confucius's death in 479 BCE; no single compilation date is attested, and the text as it now stands is generally dated to the Warring States period. Original Language Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationQuote
The last millennium has seen the development of a conventional view that materials preserved in the twenty chapters of the transmitted Analects most accurately represent Confucius's original teachings.
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