The Analects of Confucius is one of the Confucian classics and a collection of recorded essays, which mainly records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples in the form of quotations and dialogues, and embodies Confucius' political, aesthetic, moral and utilitarian values.
The Analects of Confucius covers politics, education, literature, philosophy and ways of living. As early as the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, when Confucius set up an altar to give lectures, its main contents were initially established; After the death of Confucius, his disciples and re-disciples passed on his remarks from generation to generation, and gradually recorded the words and deeds of these oral quotations, so it was called "On"; The Analects of Confucius mainly records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples, so it is called "language".
In the Qing Dynasty, Zhao Yi explained: "The speaker, the sage's language, the commentator, and the Confucian discussion." In fact, "Shang" means compiling. The Analects of Confucius refers to recording the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples and compiling them into books. The Analects of Confucius consists of 20 articles and 492 chapters, of which 444 chapters record what Confucius and his disciples talked about in time, and 48 chapters record what Confucius and his disciples talked about each other.
As a Confucian classic, The Analects is profound and all-encompassing, and its thoughts mainly include three independent and closely dependent categories: ethics-benevolence, social and political category-courtesy, and cognitive methodology category-the mean. Benevolence, first of all, is the true state in people's hearts. The final compromise must be kindness, and this true and kind state is "benevolence".
Confucius established the category of benevolence, and then expounded etiquette as a reasonable social relationship and a norm for dealing with others, and then expounded the methodological principle of the "golden mean" system. "Benevolence" is the ideological core of The Analects.
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The Analects of Confucius covers many aspects, including the Confucian concept of governing the country, interpersonal relationships, personal ethics, the social outlook in the pre-Qin period, and even the experiences of Confucius and his disciples. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", it has been regarded as "the rule of five classics and the throat of six arts" and is the first-hand information for studying Confucius and Confucianism, especially Confucianism in the pre-Qin period.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu combined The Great Learning, The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and The Doctrine of the Mean into four books, which made the Analects of Confucius become more and more important in Confucian classics. During the extension of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial examination began to select scholars with the "four books". Since then, The Analects of Confucius has been the golden rule of scholars until the Westernization Movement and the abolition of the imperial examination in the late Qing Dynasty.
References:
Baidu encyclopedia-Analects of Confucius