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The Analects,
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John
Hi! I am a graduate student in Chinese history and I would not advise reading either directly first. Because they are looking at fundamentally different questions than we are used to, many of their ideas can be hard to follow or not useful at first glance.
Instead I would strongly recommend "The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life" by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh. This is the short book I use to introduce students to Confucianism alongside primary sources.
Here's a link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Instead I would strongly recommend "The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life" by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh. This is the short book I use to introduce students to Confucianism alongside primary sources.
Here's a link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Michael
Traditionally, Lao Tzu and Confucius were regarded as contemporaries, however, while it is accepted that Confucius was an historical person, Lao Tzu is now generally considered to be legendary, a character which developed in order to attribute traditional sayings to an author. Those who defend Lao Tzu as an historical person don't agree as to who that person is, so his identity is less certain, which to me speaks of greater antiquity for the work attributed to him. So, personally (and I'm not an academic, so this is my uneducated guess) I hold the view that the Tao is the older work, and I'd start with that.
Low amount of books read
Tao Te Ching is better but take your time to do both
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