Description
The book
The Analects records what Confucius said, and what his closest disciples said in reply, across a lifetime of teaching. It is the natural entry point into Chinese thought: short conversations rather than argument, sharp judgements rather than theory, and a moral vocabulary — filial piety, ritual propriety, the superior man — that shaped two thousand years of life in East Asia.
Read in English it holds up remarkably well. Much of it is the kind of thing a teacher says to a student who is not yet ready to hear it, and much of it is uncomfortably direct about how people actually behave.
What you get
- A 82-page A5 PDF, typeset — not a scan, not a photographed old book.
- James Legge’s division into twenty books kept intact, with his chapter numbering preserved so citations still match the standard editions.
- A clean title page, an edition note explaining the source, and running text set on cream stock.
- Instant download after payment, in your account and by email.
About this edition
The translation is James Legge’s, made for The Chinese Classics and first published in 1861. Legge was a Scottish missionary and the first Professor of Chinese at Oxford; his versions are still the ones most English-speaking students meet first, because he translates close to the original and refuses to smooth the difficult passages away.
We have re-typeset the text from the Project Gutenberg transcription of that edition. Wording, book and chapter divisions are Legge’s; the page layout, cover, title page and edition note are ours.
Rights
The translation is in the public domain. Our typesetting and cover are our own work. You may read, print and quote this edition for your own study; you may not resell it or redistribute the file.
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