40 pages • 1 hour read
ConfuciusAnalects of Confucius
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | BCEA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaThemes
Filiality
One of the most important themes throughout the whole of the Analects is the idea of filiality, or filial piety. For Confucius filiality is something more than simply a child taking care of parents and obeying their guidance; filiality involves the cultivation of the feelings of respect, love, and affection for one’s immediate family elders (i.e., parents) as well as elders and authority figures in general. As Confucius remarks, “Tze-Yu asked about filiality. He said: Present-day filial piety consists in feeding the parents, as one would a dog or a horse; unless there is reverence, what difference is there?” (18).
Additionally, the reason filiality is identified as one of the key elements needed on the part of the people within society is that, from a governing perspective, it is much easier to govern and create a just and harmonious society when the people themselves uphold the law and the order of society and its traditions. Thus, for Confucius, the function of cultivating filiality on the part of people as a whole satisfies the two-fold necessity of constructing a harmonious and just society while also instilling in people the inherently virtuous behavior of love and respect for those who came before them and helped create the world they now inhabit.
Manhood
This is perhaps the singular most important virtue that is found throughout the teachings of Confucius. Sometimes described as someone who is a “gentleman,” or someone who is said to possess “full humanity,” one who has achieved manhood is the ideal moral individual that citizens and politicians should aspire to be like. While the scholarship surrounding the Analects makes note of the fact that manhood itself is given various definitions throughout the text, its key features can be briefly summarized as follows: Manhood is acting in such a way that one does not think too highly of themselves (being reverent in personal conduct), being measured in their conduct such that they act appropriately in their profession (being scrupulously honourable), being sympathetic yet firm in judging the behavior of others (being considerate in provisioning the people), being empathetic in terms of ensuring equal opportunity (being just in employment), and seeking out knowledge and clarification with respect to those who are younger and less experienced (loving to study and not being ashamed to question inferiors).
Similar to the way in which Confucius views filiality as a personal virtue whose benefits extend beyond private life and affect the whole of society, manhood defines the individual who not only is moral in actions but also aids others in developing moral character as well: “The complete man wants to build up himself in order to build up others; to be intelligent (see through things) in order to make others intelligent” (40).
Tradition/Ritual
The Confucian emphasis on the respect for tradition and dutiful observance of rites, or rituals, is not only a recurring theme throughout the Analects, but is one of the key measures Confucius identify for bringing about a well-ordered and harmonious civil society. From the vantage point of individuals, the respect for tradition, correct behavior, and a grieving process for the death of a friend or loved one (three years), all constitute the way in which each person may come to internalize the behaviors of the moral individual or the one said to possess “manhood.”
From the vantage point of those who govern society, Confucius remarks that “[n]ot to know the rites is to be without means to construct” (135). In other words, if those who govern fail to understand the practical function of rites and tradition—the communal activities that bond individuals together and allow them to internalize the values of Confucian society—then they will inevitably fail in their attempt to bring about a just society; they will be, as Confucius puts it, “without [the] means to construct.” It is with respect to the role of ritual as seen from the vantage point of those who govern that readers are able to see beyond any simple mysticism that one may first assume to be at the heart of the Confucian belief in the obligation of respecting tradition and ceremony. More than simply revering one’s elders and deferring to authority, rites, ceremony, and traditional rituals are the very tools that governors have at their disposal to ensure that the people internalize the values that allow them to act in way that is consonant with the needs of society as a whole.
