Confucius' son, Zhang Xuegan Lu, said, "What do you mean?"

Confucius said Xue, "If you hear more doubts, rest carefully, you will be rare. If you see more dangers, if you are cautious about others, you will regret it. If you don't say anything, you will regret it, and Lu will be among them. "

Translation:

Zhang Zi asked how to find Lu. Mr. Wang said, "Listen to others more, put aside what you feel suspicious, and say the rest carefully, so there will be less." Look at other people's actions, put aside what you feel uneasy about, and do the rest carefully, and you will have less regrets. Less mistakes, less regrets, this is the way to find a job. "

Source: The Analects of Confucius for Politics

The Analects of Confucius is a collection of quotations from Confucius and his disciples, which was compiled by Confucius' disciples and re-disciples until the early Warring States period. This book mainly records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples, and reflects Confucius' thoughts more intensively. It is one of the classic works of Confucianism. There are 20 chapters and 492 articles in the book, mainly quotations, supplemented by narratives, which embodies Confucius' political opinions, ethical thoughts, moral concepts and educational principles. It is also called "Four Books" with Daxue, The Doctrine of the Mean and Mencius. Together with The Book of Songs and other Five Classics, they are called "Four Books and Five Classics".

The Analects of Confucius has three versions in ancient times, namely, ancient theory, Lu theory and Qi theory. The Analects of Confucius, which is popular now, is a version formed by collating Lu Lun and Gu Lun.

compilers

In the first year of Yongping (AD 58), Xu wrote that "the invention of chapters and sentences began in the summer", and at the age of 70, it belonged to the Han people, so it directly inherited the summer. Xu Fangyan attaches importance to learning the law, which is a joint point in the history of thought. Some people say that "the Analects of Confucius cannot be shot", so we know that the status of the Analects of Confucius was not high at that time.

After Zhao Qi's Mencius, there was a domain of "seventy sons", and Confucius was accepted as The Analects. Analects of Confucius, Five Classics and Six Arts.

If Song respects Yan Hui, he has "the joy of Confucius and Yan". Cheng Xiao Zi Yichuan once wrote On Yan Zi's Good Learning. The status of The Analects of Confucius has been greatly improved.

Cui Shu, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, put forward different views on the completeness of The Analects. He noticed that the ten articles before and after this edition of The Analects were different in style and appellation. The first ten articles recorded Confucius' answers to the questions of opposing the public and mourning the public, all of which were called "Confucius to Japan" to show respect for the monarch. Answering the doctor's question is called "Confucius", which means it is different from jun, and "it depends on public opinion." In the last ten articles, such as Advanced, Yan Yuan, etc., the answer to the doctor's question is "Confucius is anti-Japanese", so there are "the first ten articles are all written by disciples, and the ceremony is not far away;

The last ten are remembered by later generations. At that time, the status of Qing was respected, the rights and interests of Qing were heavy, and people who were accustomed to the so-called contemporary world and did not carefully examine their style were covered, which could not be the same. "For another example, in the first ten articles, Confucius generally called" Zi "instead of" Kong ",and disciples did not" ask Kong "when they asked for knowledge. In the last ten articles, Ji Shi and Wei Zi mostly called Confucius, while Zhang Wenren of Yang Huo and Zhang Wenzheng of Yao Yue all called "Ask Confucius", which is different from other articles in The Analects. " I'm not sure it's Confucius' suicide note. It's all written by others. "[ii] Influenced by Cui Shu, later scholars continue to judge the completeness of The Analects from the differences in terms and titles between the previous ten articles. Some scholars even think that the Analects of Confucius was only a single article at first, and its compilation should be after the Han Dynasty.

Tang Lu Deming's classic explanation quoted Zheng Xuan as saying: The Analects of Confucius was written by Zhong Gong, Zi You and Xia Zi. This statement is circumstantial in Guodian bamboo slips. Guodian No.1 Tomb is not later than 300 BC. The Analects of Confucius was quoted in Guodian bamboo slips "Yu Cong San", which further confirmed the early stage of the book. Yu quoted Ji Fang as well as The Analects of Confucius. "Ji Fang's excerpts in the Congyu prove that Ji Fang was earlier than the middle and late Warring States Period, and Ji Fang quoted The Analects of Confucius. It still seems credible that The Analects of Confucius was written by Confucius' disciples Zhong Gong and Xia Zi. "

One of Confucius' disciples took the place of Confucius' son. It is not surprising that he is called a son. Zi refers to a teacher, and besides being a teacher, it also means being the head of Confucian scholars. Besides Confucius, there are sons. Ceng Zi, Ranzi and Minzi are also called sons. Ranzi and Minzi died young, so the head of Confucianism who studied under him can only be Zeng Shen, so it is possible that only Ceng Zi has a son. Although Yan Hui was highly respected, he died early and didn't have time to accept his apprentice. His disciples didn't record it, so they didn't call him son. Maybe it was recorded by his family. Yuan Xian, whose knees were carved, was called Zi Zisi, and his knees were carved. However, the contents recorded in The Analects of Confucius were not recorded by disciples, so they were not called Zi, and most of them were occasionally mentioned by other disciples.