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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.
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BetaBooks 13-15 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 13 Summary
Confucius gives his full attention to providing further commentary on the method of governing correctly and in accordance to “manhood.” And so Confucius says:
You bumpkin! Sprout! When a proper man doesn’t know something, he shows some reserve [...] If words are not precise, they cannot be followed out, or complete in action according to specifications [...] When the services are not brought to true focus, the ceremonies and music will not prosper [...] Therefore the proper man must have terms that can be spoke, and when uttered be carried into effect; the proper man’s words must cohere to things, correspond to them (exactly) and no more fuss about it (79-80).
For Confucius, it is of the highest priority that those who govern have cultivated their moral character precisely because while the population may find it easy to cultivate filiality and respect for authority, each individual cannot be expected to achieve “manhood.” Given a situation such as this, Confucius states:
If the men above love the rites no one of the people will dare be irreverent. If the men above love justice, none of the people will fail to conform, if the men above love veracity, none of the people will want to use mendacity, when the Great one is like this, the people of the Four Squares will come to him with their children on their backs, what does he need to know about farming? (80).
Book 14 Summary
Here, Confucius takes up previously covered themes of manhood and moral character but now with respect to the emotion or feeling of shame and remorse. As he remarks, “Hsien asked what is shameful? He said: When the country has a good government to be thinking only of salary; when the country has bad government, to be thinking only of salary: that is shameful” (87). Or again, as Confucius says further on in the book: “A proper man is ashamed of words, and goes beyond (them) in action” (93). According to Confucius, manhood isn’t the only thing that is capable of combating shameful governance or shameful deeds; aside from manhood, or perfect humanity, says Confucius, all that is required is “to see chance of profit and consider equity, to see danger and be ready to accept one’s fate, not to forget the level words of a compact made long ago, that also would make a focused man (a man brought to the point, perfect)” (90). Thus, manhood is not the sole means by which shame can be avoided in individual and social life; to avoid shameful governance and existence, all that is required is the courage of standing by one’s words and the ability to discern danger from opportunity. What is more is that it is by acting in this way that one is already on their way to cultivating “manhood.”
Book 15 Summary
In this book, Confucius articulates the relations that a moral individual, or someone with manhood, seeks to maintain with peers. As Confucius puts it, “Tze-kung asked if there were a single verb that you could practice through life up to the end. He said: Sympathy [...] what you don’t want (done to) yourself, don’t inflict on another” (103). This principle of sympathy as the single value that Confucius believes is capable to orient all of an individual’s actions in the course of life also has benefits when dealing with one’s ability to respect the time and the capacities of another person. Regarding the former, Confucius has this to say: “When you should talk to a man, and don’t, you lose the man; when it’s no use talking to a man, and you talk to him, you waste words. An intelligent man wastes (loses) neither men nor words” (100). And regarding the latter: “The proper man is irritated by his incapacities, not irritated by other people not recognising him” (103). It is in this way that sympathy, as the single value to guide and orient actions in the world, aids not only in the cultivation of moral character and virtue, but helps in relations among others in society as well.
Books 13-15 Analysis
In Books 13-15, Confucius offers discussions on the moral virtue of manhood as it relates to government, the feeling of shame, and the individual self. In Book 13, Confucius argues that it is of the highest priority that those who govern have cultivated their moral character precisely because while the population may find it easy to cultivate filiality and respect for authority, each individual cannot be expected to achieve “manhood.”
In Book 14, Confucius argues that manhood isn’t the only thing capable of combating shameful governance or shameful deeds; aside from manhood, or perfect humanity, says Confucius, all that is required is:
to see chance of profit and consider equity, to see danger and be ready to accept one’s fate, not to forget the level words of a compact made long ago, that also would make a focused man (a man brought to the point, perfect)” (90).
Thus, manhood is not the sole means by which shame can be avoided in individual and social life; to avoid shameful governance and existence, all that is required is the courage of standing by one’s words and the ability to discern danger from opportunity.
And in Book 15, Confucius articulates the relations that a moral individual, or someone with manhood, seeks to maintain with peers. As Confucius puts it, “Tze-kung asked if there were a single verb that you could practice through life up to the end. He said: Sympathy...what you don’t want (done to) yourself, don’t inflict on another” (103). This principle of sympathy is the single value that Confucius believes is capable of orienting all of an individual’s actions in the course of their life. Taking these three books together, what we get is a more detailed picture of how the moral person, the one who exhibits manhood, acts in the differing settings of governance, experiences, and/or the avoidance of shame, and with respect to oneself. Perhaps most notable here is that Confucius argues that manhood is not a requirement for someone to be said to live correctly; rather all that is required is honesty in word and deed and the intelligence of discerning opportunity from danger.
