What is the main content of the Analects? What are the benefits of reading the Analects?

The Analects is a collection of quotations compiled by the disciples of Confucius, a thinker and educator in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was completed in the early Warring States Period. So, what is the main content of the Analects? What are the benefits of reading the Analects? Let's take a look at the introduction of Encyclopedia Knowledge Network to answer these questions!

Contents of this article

1. Main content of the Analects

2. What are the benefits of reading the Analects?

3. Primary school students should recite the Analects

The main content of the Analects

The content of the Analects mainly involves six aspects: morality, self-cultivation, teaching, rituals and music, politics, and personality. Confucius is the center of the Analects. The book not only contains static descriptions of his manners and behaviors, but also vivid portrayals of his personality and temperament. In addition, around Confucius, the Analects also successfully portrays the images of some of Confucius' disciples.

The Analects is a collection of quotations from the Spring and Autumn Period of China, mainly recording the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples. It reflects Confucius' thoughts in a relatively concentrated way. It was compiled by Confucius' disciples and their disciples. The book consists of 20 chapters and 492 chapters, and is the first to create the "quotation style". In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi called it "the Four Books" together with Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean.

What are the benefits of reading the Analects?

1. Understand that you need to keep working hard to realize your ideals. The Analects of Confucius talks a lot about ideals and aspirations. When you have a clear goal, you have a direction to move forward.

2. Master the rules and methods of interacting with strangers.

3. Learn to reflect on yourself, educate yourself and grow.

4. It is helpful to correct behavior and establish correct values.

Primary school students should recite the Analects

1. If you study without thinking, you will be confused; if you think without studying, you will be in danger.

2. To know what you know and to know what you don’t know is true knowledge.

3. A gentleman does not seek to be full when he eats, nor does he seek to be comfortable when he lives. He is quick to act and cautious in speech. He follows the Way and is upright in his conduct. He can be said to be studious.

4. If you can review the old and learn the new, you can become a teacher.

5. At fifteen, I set my heart on learning; at thirty, I became independent; at forty, I had no doubts; at fifty, I understood the will of Heaven; at sixty, my ears were obedient; at seventy, I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the rules.

6. If I hear the truth in the morning, I can die in the evening.

7. If you are not angry, you will not be enlightened; if you are not frustrated, you will not speak out; if you raise one corner without using the other three to support it, you will not be able to recover.

8. Work so hard that you forget to eat, be so happy that you forget your worries, and you don’t realize that old age is approaching.

9. Those who know it are not as good as those who enjoy it, and those who enjoy it are not as good as those who like it.

10. A scholar must be broad-minded and resolute, for he has a heavy responsibility and a long way to go.

11. The general of an army can be replaced, but the will of a common man cannot be taken away.

12. Only when winter comes do we realize that pine and cypress are the last to wither.

13. Those who are good at speaking and have an ingratiating appearance are seldom kind.

14. Virtue is never alone; it always has neighbors.

15. Only a man of both culture and refinement can be called a gentleman.

16. A gentleman is not a tool.

17. A gentleman cannot be of little knowledge but can be of great capacity, while a villain cannot be of great capacity but can be of little knowledge.

18. Wealth and honor obtained by unjust means are like floating clouds to me.

19. The wise are not confused, the benevolent are not worried, and the brave are not afraid.

20. Do not shirk responsibility by taking on responsibilities that are not yours.