Zhu XI's Reading of the Analects: Canon, Commentary, and the Classical Tradition

by Daniel K. Gardner

Book Overview

The Analects is a compendium of the sayings of Confucius (551-479 b.c.e.), transcribed and passed down by his disciples. How it came to be transformed by Zhu Xi (1130-1200) into one of the most philosophically significant texts in the Confucian tradition is the subject of this book.

Scholarly attention in China had long been devoted to the Analects. By the time of Zhu Xi, a rich history of commentary had grown up around it...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231128657
• ISBN13: 9780231128650
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 22 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An ideal approach to Zhu Xi's commentary

To me this is an ideal approach to Zhu Xi's (13th century) Analects commentary. A translation without the translator's explanations would be incomprehensible to a non sinologist like myself. Gardner has chosen 95 key sayings of the Analects with Zhu Xi's commentary, and also that of He Yan (3rd century) that is perhaps closer to Confucius. Although Zhu Xi criticises Buddhism, the inward turn that had become important in Neo-Confucianism emphasizes a form of meditation that probably had an indirect Buddhist influence, which makes it that more interesting.