The Analects

by Confucius

Let us turn to Confucius’ teachings. Philosophers who are interested in morals can generally be divided into two kinds, those who are interested in moral character and those who are interested in moral acts. Confucius certainly has far more to say about moral character than moral acts,

it is convenient, first of all, to dispose of two concepts which were already current in Confucius’ time, viz., the Way (tao) and virtue (te). The importance Confucius attached to the Way can be seen from his remark, ‘He has not lived in vain who dies the day he is told about the Way’ (IV.8). Used in this sense, the Way seems to cover the sum total of truths about the universe and man, and not only the individual but also the state is said either to possess or not to possess the Way.

The Way, then, is a highly emotive term and comes very close to the term ‘Truth’ as found in philosophical and religious writings in the West.

There seems to be little doubt that the word te, virtue, is cognate with the word te, to get.2 Virtue is an endowment men get from Heaven. The word was used in this sense when Confucius, facing a threat to his life, said, ‘Heaven is author of the virtue that is in me’ (VII.23), but this usage is rare in the Analects.

By the time of Confucius, the term must have already become a moral term. It is something one cultivates, and it enables one to govern a state well. One of the things that caused him concern was, according to...

He also said that if one guided the common people by virtue they would not only reform themselves but...

Confucius, nevertheless, gave them high precedence in his scheme of things. He said, ‘I set my heart on the Way, base myself on virtue, lean upon benevolence for support and take my recreation in the arts’ (VII.6). Benevolence is something the achievement of which is totally dependent upon our own efforts, but virtue is partly a gift from Heaven.

Behind Confucius’ pursuit of the ideal moral character lies the unspoken, and therefore, unquestioned, assumption that the only purpose a man can have and also the only worthwhile thing a man can do is to become as good a man as possible.

As far as survival after death is concerned, Confucius’ attitude can, at best, be described as agnostic When Tzu-lu asked how gods and spirits of the dead should be served, the Master answered that as he was not able even to serve man how could he serve the spirits, and when Tzu-lu further asked about death, the Master answered that as he did not understand even life how could he understand death (XI.12).

Since in being moral one can neither be assured of a reward nor guaranteed success, morality must be pursued for its own sake.

There is no doubt, however, that the ideal moral character for Confucius is the chün tzu. (gentleman), as he is discussed in more than eighty chapters in the Analects. Chün tzu and hsiao jen (small man) are correlative and contrasted terms. The former is used of men in authority while the latter of those who are ruled.4 In the Analects, however, chün tzu and hsiao jen are essentially moral terms. The chün tzu is the man with a cultivated moral character, while the hsiao jen is the opposite.

As the gentleman is the ideal moral character, it is not to be expected that a man can become a gentleman without a great deal of hard work or cultivation, as the Chinese called it. There is a considerable number of virtues a gentleman is supposed to have and the essence of these virtues is often summed up in a precept.

Benevolence (jen) is the most important moral quality a man can possess.

That it is the moral quality a gentleman must posess is clear from the following saying. If the gentleman forsakes benevolence, in what way can he make a name for himself? The gentleman never deserts benevolence, not even for as long as it takes to eat a meal. If he hurries and stumbles, one may be sure that it is in benevolence that he does so. (IV.5)

In some contexts ‘the gentleman’ and ‘the benevolent man’ are almost interchangeable terms. For instance, it is said in one place that ‘a gentleman is free from worries and fears’ (XII.4), while elsewhere it is the benevolent man who is said not to have worries (IX.29, XIV.28).

The essential point about benevolence is to be found in Confucius’ answer to Chung-kung: Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire. (XII.2)

There is another saying which is, in fact, also about shu. In answer to a question from Tzu-kung, Confucius said, A benevolent man helps others to take their stand in so far as he himself wishes to take his stand, and gets others there in so far as he himself wishes to get there. The ability to take as analogy what is near at hand can be called the method of benevolence. (VI.30)

From this we can see that shu is the method of discovering what other people wish or do not wish done to them. The method consists in taking oneself – ‘what is near at hand’ – as an analogy5 and asking oneself what one would like or dislike were one in the position of the person at the receiving end. Shu, however, cannot be the whole of benevolence as it is only its method.

As the way of the Master consists of chung and shu, in chung we have the other component of benevolence. Chung is the doing of one’s best and it is through chung that one puts into effect what one had found out by the method of shu.

Tseng Tzu said on another occasion, ‘Every day I examine myself on three counts,’ and of these the first is ‘In what I have undertaken on another’s behalf, have I failed to be chung?’ (I.4). Again, when asked how a subject should serve his ruler, Confucius’ answer was that he ‘should serve his ruler with chung’ (III.19). Finally, it is also said that in dealing with others one should be chung (XIII.19). In all these cases there is no doubt at all that chung means ‘doing one’s best’.6

Another answer Confucius gave to the question about benevolence was, ‘Love your fellow men’ (XII.22). As he did not elaborate, his meaning is not very clear. But fortunately he used this phrase again on two other occasions. In I.5 he said, ‘In guiding a state of a thousand chariots…avoid excesses in expenditure and love your fellow men; employ the labour of the common people in the right seasons.’ Again, the Master, according to Tzu-yu, once said ‘that the gentle...

Confucius had a profound admiration for the Duke of Chou8 who, as regent in the early part of the reign of his young nephew, King Ch’eng, was the architect of the Chou feudal system some five hundred years before Confucius’ time.

It is sufficient simply to single out for mention his most important contribution, the clan inheritance system known as tsung fa. Under this system, succession passes to the eldest son by the principal wife. Younger sons or sons by concubines become founders of their own noble houses. Thus the feudal lord stands to the king in a double relationship. In terms of political relationship he is a vassal while in terms of blood ties he is the head of a cadet branch of the royal clan. Political allegiance has as its foundation family allegiance. This social system founded by the Duke of Chou proved its soundness by the durability of the Chou Dynasty.

Following the footsteps of the Duke of Chou, Confucius made the natural love and obligations obtaining between members of the family the basis of a general morality. The two most important relationships within the family are those between father and son and between elder and younger brother.

The love one owes to one’s parents is hsiao while the respect due one’s elder brother is t‘i. If a man is a good son and a good younger brother at home, he can b...

He goes on to draw the logical conclusion that ‘being good as a son and obedient as a young man is, perhaps, the root of a man’s character’.

If being a good son makes a good subject, being a good father will also make a good ruler. Love for people outside one’s family is looked upon as an extension of the love for members of one’s own family. One consequence of this view is that the love, and so the obligation to love, decreases by degrees as it extends outwards. Geographically, one loves members of one’s own family more than one’s neighbours, one’s neighbours more than one’s fellow villagers, and so on.

In Confucius’ terminology, one should be generous (hui) to the common people (V.16). This is in keeping with Confucius’ general attitude towards obligations. Our obligation towards others should be in proportion to the benefit we have received from them.

This may be taken to mean that the observance of the three-year mourning period is, in some sense, a repayment of the love received from one’s parents in the first years of one’s life. If this is so, it is not difficult to see why the obligations we owe to other people should also be in proportion to the closeness of our relationship to them.

There are two points in this definition of benevolence which deserve attention. First, benevolence consists in overcoming the self. Second, to be benevolent one has to return to the observance of the rites.

If being moral has nothing to do with pursuing one’s own interest, neither has it anything to do with deliberately going against it Why, then, it may be asked, is it so important to emphasize this lack of relationship between the two? The answer is this. Of all the things that are likely to distort a man’s moral judgement and deflect him from his moral purpose, self-interest is the strongest, the most persistent and the most insidious.

Confucius was well aware of this. That is why he said, more than once, that at the sight of profit one should think of what is right (XIV.12, XVI.10 and XIX.1). In another context he warned men in their old age against acquisitiveness (XVI.7). He also asked, ‘Is it really possible to work side by side with a mean fellow in the service of a lord? Before he gets what he wants, he worries lest he should not get it. After he has got it, he worries lest he should lose it, and when that happens he will not stop at anything’ (XVII.15).

The point about returning to the observance of the rites is equally important. The rites (li) were a body of rules governing action in every aspect of life and they were the repository of past insights into morality. It is, therefore, important that one should, unless there are strong reasons to the contrary, observe them.

For the moment, it is enough to say that Confucius had great respect for the body of rules which went under the name of li. That is why when Yen Yüan pressed for more specific details, he was told not to look or listen, speak or move, unless it was in accordance with the rites (XII.1).

is no more than one would expect from a man of modesty. However, he did say of Yen Yüan, ‘in his heart for three months at a time Hui does not lapse from benevolence,’ while ‘the others attain benevolence merely by fits and starts’ (VI.7). This emphasis on the difficulty of practising benevolence is echoed, as we have seen, by Tseng Tzu who described benevolence as ‘a heavy burden’ (VIII.7

There are two virtues which are often mentioned together with benevolence. They are wisdom or intelligence (chih) and courage (yung).

A man of wisdom is never in two minds in his judgement about right and wrong. A man who lacks wisdom, however, can easily mistake the specious for the genuine. This can happen with borderline cases where the application of a rule or a definition becomes uncertain, particularly in the sphere of morals.

Another attribute of the wise man is that he has knowledge of men. In other words, he is a good judge of character. In the Chinese view, the most important factor contributing to the difficulty of predicting the future lies in the unpredictable nature of man. Thus, the study of human character, through which the only hope of gaining some degree of control over future events lies, was considered a matter of vital importance to the ruler, as the present and future stability of his state often depended on his choice of ministers.

But is wisdom acquired? It is true, Confucius said, ‘Those who are born with knowledge are the highest. Next come those who attain knowledge through study. Next again come those who turn to study after having been vexed by difficulties. The common people, in so far as they make no effort to study even after having been vexed by difficulties, are the lowest’ (XVI.9), but he made no claim to be amongst those born with knowledge. In fact he explicitly rejected this when he said, ‘I was not born with knowledge but, being fond of antiquity, I am quick to seek it’ (VII.20).

Courage was counted one of the major virtues. This is clear from the following saying attributed to Confucius in the Chung yung (The Mean) ‘Wisdom, benevolence and courage, these three are virtues universally acknowledged in the Empire.’9

True, it is an indispensable virtue in a gentleman if he is to see his moral purpose through, because he has to pursue that purpose fearlessly, and only ‘the man of courage is never afraid’ (IX.29, XIV.28). ‘Faced with what is right, to leave it undone,’ according to Confucius, ‘shows a lack of courage’ (II.24).

Courage is, indeed, a double-edged sword. In the hands of the good, it is a means to the realization of goodness, but in the hands of the wicked, it is equally a means to the realization of wickedness.

To put this in even stronger terms, neither great goodness nor great wickedness can be accomplished by men devoid of courage.

On another occasion he said of the gentleman ‘He dislikes those who, while possessing courage, lack the spirit of the rites’ (XVII.24). Equally, ‘being fond of courage while detesting poverty will lead men to unruly behaviour’ (VIII.10). Courage, to be a virtue, must be in the service of morality.

Hence, when asked whether the gentleman considered courage a supreme quality, Confucius answered, ‘For the gentleman it is morality that is supreme. Possessed of courage but devoid of morality, a gentleman will make trouble while a small man will be a brigand’ (XVII.23).

There remain two major virtues to be dealt with. First, there is hsin. This is a concept which has no exact equivalent in English. To be hsin is to be reliable in word. An important part of this has, of course, to do with promise-keeping. But when Confucius talks of being hsin in word (I.7, XIII.20,...

It concerns, besides promises, resolutions concerning future conduct, or even plain statements of fact. Not to carry out a resolution is to fail to be hsin; to have made a statement not borne out by facts – whether they ...

In this connection, Confucius often opposes the terms yen (word) and hsing (deed). For one’s deed to fail to match one’s word is to fail to be hsin. Hence the importance o...

‘The gentleman is ashamed of his word outstripping his deed’ (XIV.27), and ‘claims made immodestly are difficult to live up to’ (XIV.20). Hence ‘in antiquity men were loath to speak’ ‘because they counted it shameful if their person failed to keep up with their words’ (IV.22). The safest course to take is never to make any claims until the deed is done. Thus, the...

Confucius’ general advice is that one should be quick to act but slow t...