The Analects (Penguin Classics)

Confucius has become synonymous in the West with Eastern wisdom: profound and mysterious. He was, however, one of the most humane, lucid, and rational moral teachers of the ancient world, concerned not with arcane metaphysics or invisible gods but with the practical issues of life and conduct. How should the state be organized? What makes a good ruler? What is virtue? What is the proper relationship between man and nature? Above all, how should individuals behave with one another and toward their environment? Confucius addressed all these questions in dialogues, stories, and anecdotes gathered together as The Analects, which offers not lofty moral prescriptions but sensible advice based on principles of justice and moderation. So timeless was his thinking that even now, after two and a half thousand years, The Analects remains one of the most influential texts ever written.