The Analects of Confucius is a book that records the thoughts, speeches and activities of Confucius, his disciples and related people. Most of the content directly quotes the conversations and speeches of the parties, which is called a collection of literary essays. A book compiled by Confucius' disciples and re-disciples is called "The Analects of Confucius" because most of the contents are speeches by characters. There are 20 books and 492 chapters in the book, which is the first "documentary".
Mainly by Zhong Gong, Zi You, three people first discussed the drafting, and completed it together with several disciples who stayed in Lu to commemorate the teacher and worry about the loss of the teacher's way. And sentence reading was initiated by Xia Zi.
The Analects of Confucius covers many aspects such as philosophy, politics, economy, education, literature and art, and is the most important classic of Confucianism. In terms of expression, The Analects of Confucius is a model for recording prose, with concise language and vivid images. In terms of arrangement, The Analects has no strict compiling style, each article is a chapter, and each chapter is a chapter. Articles and chapters are not closely related, but are roughly classified and repeated chapters appear.
The Analects of Confucius, influenced by later generations, has been regarded as "the rule of the Five Classics, the throat of the Six Arts" since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "ousted a hundred schools of thought and respected Confucianism alone", and is the first-hand material for studying Confucius and Confucianism, especially primitive Confucianism. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu combined Daxue, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius and Mencius into four books, which made his position in Confucian classics improve day by day. During the life extension period of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial examination began to select scholars with the "four books". From then on, until the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination was abolished, and The Analects of Confucius has always been the golden rule pursued by scholars.
The Analects of Confucius entered the classic bibliography in the Tang Dynasty. "There were Zhou Li, Yi Li and Li Ji in the Tang Dynasty, Zuo Zhuan, Ram and Gu Liang in the Spring and Autumn Period, plus The Analects of Confucius, Er Ya and Xiao Jing, which are the thirteen classics."
Zhao Pu, a politician in the Northern Song Dynasty, once said that "the Analects of Confucius governs the world". This reflects the great role and influence of this book in ancient China society.
The Analects of Confucius retains some people's criticisms and satires on Confucius' mentoring, some of which have been refuted and some have not answered. Its refutation and debate have a great influence on later generations, such as answering a guest's question and answering questions, all inspired by the Analects of Confucius. Its self-deprecating part shows the Confucian affirmation of self-worth and praises the positive spirit of "knowing what it is but not doing it".