Customer Reviews

The Essential Confucius: The Heart of Confucius' Teachings in Authentic I Ching Order

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This is an amazing book. It's terse and every sentence is a jewel. Reading this, one sees why Confucius is regarded a sage. He understands human nature so well. Why don't we teach Confucianism in school? Our leaders would benefit greatly from reading this book. Here's a nice quote from the man, "When you see wise people, think of becoming equal to them. When you see unwise people, reflect inwardly on yourself."

I found 'Essential Confucious' to be insightful, but grossly incomplete. I was surprised to see how little content was amassed by Cleary. The Analects are a rich source of insight, and this book simply does not do it justice. Some of the passages chosen I would not have put forth either, considering the nature of the book's purpose. A lot of space is wasted, which could have contained many more of Confucious' truths.

On the other hand, I do think that this is an excellent place to begin your Confucian search. If you just need a little prod or poke of his truths, then this is a nice, concise handbook. Nothing, however, can be substituted for the full Analects.

Few ancient philosophical teachings are powerful enough to escape obsoleteness and retain the power that they had when they were first taught. Confuciusicianism's didactic philosophy is one of these true classics. The timeless quality of its teachings is made accessible for the English reader in the book The Essential Confucius arranged and translated by Thomas Cleary. Cleary has arranged by topic, Confucian aphorisms from the Book of Change and Confucius's Analects to enhance the readers understanding of Confucius's philosophy as a whole. Through Cleary's lucid translations and his skillful weaving of the two different texts of Confuciusianism the reader is able to heuristically grasp that the purpose and means by which Confucius wished to ameliorate society.
The book consists of sayings from the Book of Change that are complimented by the dialogues from Confucius's from the Analects. Although these two works are from different authors, Confucius's Analects was heavily influenced by The Book of Change and these two works meld together in Cleary's fluid arrangement. Thomas Cleary assists the reader in the understanding of the main elements of Confucianism by providing notes in the back of the book and a short writing explaining the historical context of the two works in the introduction.

In his book on 'The Essential Tao', Thomas Cleary presented a wonderful picture of one of the dominant strands of Asian wisdom, one that has intrigued and fascinated people in the West in the past few generations. Cleary is one of the foremost scholars of ancient Chinese and Japanese. Mostly likely, if you have read a copy of ancient Chinese classic 'The Art of War' (a text widely popular, from historians and military strategists to corporate raiders and managers), it has been one of Cleary's translations.

Following the success of the book on the Tao, Cleary turned to another pillar of ancient Chinese thought, and developed this further volume in the 'Essentials' series, The Essential Confucius, the heart of Confucius' teachings in authentic I Ching order.

Confucius is a confusing character to classify. He does not fit the characterisation of the typical religious leader. He certainly did not mean to found a religion. Confucius was an educator, a social critic, a politician, and philosopher.

'"The Analects of Confucius" are a basic source for a wide range of advice on human affairs--from governing nations and managing enterprises to dealing with society and getting along with others.'

Confucius is much more than the author of fortune-cookie proverbs. In this work, Cleary has set forth the sayings of Confucius in the order of the sixty-four classic I Ching hexagrams. Many of these sayings are reduced (and likewise dismissed) as fortune-cookie sayings; however, taken together with the commentaries of Confucius, these give profound insight into the human condition. The I Ching, or literally, Book of Change, is a book which Confucius studied and promoted. Thus, to use it as a guide to Confucius' own writings is appropriate and authentic.

Confucius tried to stimulate people into original thinking, into independent thinking. It is ironic that so many times in history that original thinking has been suppressed in favour of Confucian purity -- a perennial danger in any religion.

An example of Cleary's technique is in order:

Book of Change

Good people examine themselves and cultivate virtue

- Confucius said, 'Study as though you will not reach, as if you may lose it.' (8:17)

- Confucius said, 'The virtue of balanced normalcy is consummate, it seems, but it has been scarce among the people for a long time.' (6:29)

Cleary presents the I Ching, the setting of Confucius proverb, and then various commentaries upon it. Through the sixty-four sayings and commentaries, one gets a sense of exegesis similar in character to Mishnah and Talmud as well as various Christian commentators.

Confucius above all believed in the responsibility of the learned to the ignorant, the powerful to the weak, and the wealthy for the poor. Each individual is entrusted with potential to serve the greater good of all, not just himself or herself. These are words that are worthy hearing and elevating, and not dismissing as after-dinner quips.

May your reading be truly enlightened in the virtues of humanity, justice, courtesy and wisdom.

This book does not have the complete set of analects, and what's worse; the author selected analects that seem to match the 64 trograms of the I ching.

As an example.

On page 86; the author lists trigram #36

Then on page 87 lists the following analects 6:11, 14:32, 1:16, 2:17, 8:1, and 15:29.

I would suggest that you leave this book alone, and buy a book with the full analects.