Confucius said: “Only the very wise and the very foolish never change.” 子曰：「唯上知與下愚不移。」 Even if you are the smartest person in the room, that does not mean you should break out a bottle of champagne. There are plenty of people outside it who are ten times smarter than you. …

Confucius said: “People are similar by nature; they diverge through their habits.” 子曰：「性相近也，習相遠也。」 Never underestimate the importance of culture in shaping your attitudes and behaviors. If you work in an environment that inhibits independent thinking and penalizes mistakes, it will not take you long to learn that the there is…

Yang Huo wanted to see Confucius, but Confucius would not see him. Yang Huo sent him a suckling pig. Confucius chose a time when Yang Huo was not at home to call on him and give his thanks but ran into him along the way. Yang Huo said to Confucius…

Read this new English translation of the Analects of Confucius Book 17 to learn more about the teachings of China’s most famous philosopher. Chapter 1 陽貨欲見孔子，孔子不見，歸孔子豚。孔子時其亡也，而往拜之。遇諸塗。謂孔子曰：「來！予與爾言。」曰：「懷其寶而迷其邦，可謂仁乎？」曰：「不可。」「好從事而亟失時，可謂知乎？」曰：「不可。」「日月逝矣！歲不我與！」孔子曰：「諾，吾將仕矣！」 Yang Huo wanted to see Confucius, but Confucius would not see him. Yang Huo sent him a suckling pig. Confucius chose a time when Yang Huo…

Here is a list of resources covering Book 16 of the Analects of Confucius. You can click on the links below to learn more about the main themes of the book: Analects Book 16: translation Analects Book 16: Ran Qiu and Zilu disappoint the sage Analects Book 16: Ziqin questions Confucius’s son…

Even though Confucius does not go as far as providing a single clearcut definition of what he means by an exemplary person (君子/jūnzǐ) in Book 16 of the Analects, he provides the most exhaustive list of qualities he thought one should possess in the text. The best example comes in…

A dark sense of foreboding permeates the first three chapters of Book 16 of the Analects. The cultural, political, and moral fabric that has bound together the myriad states comprising the Zhou dynasty for over five hundred years is being ripped apart by relentless power struggles not just between the…

Who were Boyi and Shuqi, the two poster boys of filial devotion who Confucius lauds in 16.12? This question is relatively easy to answer given the reasonable amount of information that is available about them. But the reason why the sage champions the two brothers as moral exemplars is much…

Quite apart from his personal experiences with Duke Jing of Qi, Confucius had ample justification for condemning him as a man of no virtue. …