Customer Reviews

The Analects (Everyman's Library)

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There seems to be some confusion here by some of the Reviewers about this translation of the Lun Yu--the Analects of Confucius--of Kong Zi.

The Everyman's Library edition is the respected Arthur Waley translation from 1938. Look inside the book at the Copyright page provided by Amazon and there you will see that this is the Arthur Waley translation. Or you can go to the Everyman's Library website at Random House if you prefer.

For the money you can't beat this copy of the Analects. Hard Cover (Cloth) for the price of a paperback. There may be more easily readable translations, but there is something to be said for having to stop and think about what has been said where a book of wisdom is concerned.

If you only have one copy of the Analects, this is a very good one to have. The Analects are the sayings and quotes of the proverbial wisdom of Confucius and his followers. Literally "The Discussion Over Confucius' Words".

"When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them".

I read this on the plane to China. For me the best part was the excellent introduction in the Everyman edition. It helped me understand Chinese history and The Master's place in it, as well as summarize his philosophy and advice for how to run an empire. As for the work itself, it seemed a bit thin to me, but I am sure there are reasons those more expert than me could explain. It can be read very quickly; of course if you want to become an expert (which I didn't), a close read would probably reveal more joy than I found.

There is nothing new here if you have already read the Tao and Epictetus. You can argue this came first (I am not sure of the exact time-line between this and the Tao), but the truth is both sources have more of value. This book has a few gems of ideas that are also found in one or both of the other books, buried in a lot of irrelevant stories of people, mostly students, that are not especially interesting or helpful.

I would read the Tao if you're looking for eastern philosophy, and Epictetus for the ancient western view, whether you're interested in helpful life guidance or simply the history of philosophy; either or both have more of value in my opinion than the Analects.

Tao Te Ching (Everyman's Library)

The Discourses of Epictetus - The Handbook - Fragments (Everyman's Library)