Analects of Confucius: heading down the home stretch

After a longer break than I had originally intended, I have started easing my way back into the Analects as I prepare to head down the home stretch.

With only fourteen chapters, Book 16 is (mercifully) shorter than Book 15. It is also written in a different style than the previous books in the Analects. As a result, many scholars believe it was compiled at a much later date — perhaps even up to four hundred years after the death of the sage. Book 16 to Book 20 are also believed to be of a similar vintage.

One of the book’s stylistic quirks is that Confucius is referred to as Kongzi (Master Kong) rather than simply “Master”. Another one is that the sage becomes enamored with the number three in a series of passages starting with 16.4, where he states: “There are three kinds of friends who lift you up and three kinds of friends who drag you down.” In 16.10, he triples down on the three theme by listing nine ways in which exemplary people focus their thoughts.

By far the weirdest chapter in Book 15 is the final one, which lists the different titles people used to address the wife of a ruler of a state during the time of Confucius. Nobody seems to have any idea how this passage managed to end up in the text. Most likely, it was culled from a ritual manual by some nameless editor. Perhaps he thought we would all be interested to know the wife of a ruler called herself “Your Little Maiden” whenever she formally addressed her husband while the ruler called his spouse “My Lady”.