Three teachings and nine streams - Heart's interpretation of scriptures

Author: Li Angang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-02-01
Features: The book The Analects consists of twenty chapters, each named after the first two or three characters of its opening sentence, totaling approximately 20,000 words. It reflects Confucius's ideas of self-restraint and restoring ritual propriety, cultivating benevolence to become a sage or noble ruler, political thought emphasizing governance through virtue and benevolent love, humanistic thought on how to conduct oneself and survive wisely, academic thought advocating seeking knowledge widely and avoiding dogmatism, educational thought promoting education for all and, and so on. All aspects related to human survival and social stability have been deeply and profoundly explored, making it a comprehensive encyclopedia of life. Although sometimes just a few words, they are concise, subtle, and thought-provoking.
During his lifetime, although Confucius's academic and political thoughts were not promoted or valued by the ruling class, they were eventually recognized and utilized by later generations through the efforts of his disciples. The Analects became a prominent field of study. Since the Han Dynasty, it has been an official academic subject and a must-read for scholars as an introductory text. Especially after Emperor Wu suppressed other schools of thought and exclusively honored Confucianism, Confucius's status rose. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, The Analects was included among the "Seven Classics." From the Wei and Jin periods onward, each dynasty established official institutions to teach The Analects and appointed scholars to lecture on it. During the Song Dynasty, it gained further prominence through the advocacy of great Confucian scholars, leading to the flourishing of Confucianism. Particularly under the Southern Song's Zhu Xi, The Analects was ranked alongside the Mencius, Great Learning, and Doctrine of the Mean as the "Four Books," placed alongside the "Five Classics." Emperor Li Zhi of the Song Dynasty later established Zhu Xi's Collected Annotations on the Four Books as an official text. From the Yuan Dynasty's Renzong Emperor onward, it remained a required reading for imperial examinations until the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Later, during the May Fourth Movement, the campaign to "overthrow the Confucian family store" turned The Analects into a feudal traditional text, despised by the people. If the "Confucian family store" truly existed, how could it have been overturned so easily after two thousand years of painstaking effort? Moreover, due to its intrinsic value and the promotion by the ruling class, the essence of The Analects deeply permeated households, becoming a popular for commoners. It played an unparalleled role in shaping and developing the traditional moral values of the Chinese nation to the extent that people read "lun" in The Analects as "lun" in human ethics.
For over two thousand years, the influence of The Analects has deeply penetrated into the genetic code of our nation, shaping people's moral cultivation, psychological structure, customs, social patterns, and etiquette, forming the fine tradition of the Chinese nation as a land of etiquette. In fact, The Analects contains profound Eastern wisdom and the way of economy. Therefore, the United Nations' declarations repeatedly emphasize that for the world to develop, it must seek wisdom in Confucius's The Analects, which dates back 2,500 years.