As an anthology of quotation style prose that comes in existence in the Spring and Autumn Period of China, The Analects records the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples. Compiled by Confucius’ disciples and their disciples, the anthology reflects Confucius’ thoughts as a whole. The work consists of 20 Books and 492 chapters. “Quotation style” was first adopted in the compilation. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi compiled“The Four Books” by combining The Analects with The Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrines of the Mean.
Though The Analects is an important classic of the Chinese nation, and Confucius has become the teacher of the Chinese people all over the world, for most of our modern people, Confucius, the male protagonist in The Analects, is still both familiar and unfamiliar. Professor Liu Dongying, the lecturer, has been devoting herself to an intensive study of Confucian culture for years. By breaking through the limitations of The Analects, and overcoming inadequacy of logic of the quotation prose, she adopts the method of “consistency” to link up Confucius’ thoughts, which renders her explanation systematic. Despite the title of “Wisdom of Life from Confucius”, however, these lectures present no feelings and experiences of subjective type, but give general guidelines which are derived from The Analects and verified by relevant ancient and modern literature through combination of classics with textual criticisms. In portraying a real and attractive Confucius, the lecturer aims to enable Confucius’ wisdom to become the best guidelines of living for all of our modern people.
