Content Warning: Brief discussion of war, xenophobia, misogyny, mental health, and classism.
**EDITOR'S NOTE** -- While editing I looked into the name Confucius and found that I was incorrectly calling him Lao Tzu throughout this episode! In my preliminary research, I stumbled into a list of Confucian texts and ancient Chinese philosophy. The consistency with which both Lao Tzu and Confucius wrote confused me and made me assume they were the same person. Lao Tzu was a DIFFERENT philosopher alive at the same time as Confucius and primarily wrote about Taoism. Please excuse my unfamiliarity with ancient Chinese philosophy and my continued misuse of Lao Tzu's name as interchangeable with Confucius throughout this episode and the next. Apologies folx. I will remedy this in parts 3 and 4 of The Analects.
In this episode, I tell the first five books of "The Analects". The title translates to "The Sayings of Confucius" and was likely compiled posthumously by his disciples. Within the text lies a heap of wisdom surrounding the topics of teaching, learning from others, benevolence to one's fellows, and the historical political situation of the Spring-and-Autumn period in ancient China. Unlike many other spiritual texts, the Analects are not bounded by a narrative, dialogue, or other centralizing structure. Instead, the text is composed of individual verses, almost entirely independent of each other. They appear to be grouped by vague theme, though each holds some grain of difference in topic from those around it. Confucius himself did not see himself as spiritually important, and his work today lies somewhere between philosophy and spirituality.
We'll discuss the ancient history of pre-imperial China, the relation of Confucius' beliefs to his time period, the classism inherent in the ruling class' interpretation of the working class' needs, and the meaning of benevolence. Engaged action is a consistent theme in the work, and thus we will be exploring the many ways in which attempts at doing can go well, go wrong, not be done at all, or be done for the wrong reasons.
Thank you for listening!
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