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Book 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Analects, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Self-Restraint
Honesty and Integrity
The Individual vs. The Collective
Self-Mastery, Discipline, and Improvement
Summary
Analysis
The Master says that although there are 300 Odes, they can be summarized in a single phrase: “Swerving not from the right path.”
Here, Confucius describes the meaning of the Way with great simplicity. However, the fact that there are so many Odes to be studied also reveals how much hard work and rigorous studying it takes to learn about what the “right path” is and how not to sway from it. Therefore, this moment showcases the discipline necessary to live in accordance with the Way.
Active
Themes
When asked what it means to be a good child to one’s parents, the Master says that a good child should “never fail to comply.” This means that good children complete their parents’ wishes when they are alive, and, after their parents die, follow the rites in by giving them a proper burial and making sacrifices to live in accordance with what their parents would wish for them. He adds that good children should cause their parents no stress other than illness.
Confucius again addresses how important it is for children to be loyal to their parents. He establishes a clear hierarchical relationship between parent and child, in which the child’s role is merely to obey and appease their parents. He mentions that children must follow the rites in burying their parents, which again highlights Confucius’s high opinion of tradition.
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Continuing his discussion on what it means to be a good child, the Master comments that in the modern days, people understand a “filial” son to be one who keep his parents well-fed in their old age. He comments, however, that “even hounds and horses are, in some way, provided with food.” For the Master, without reverence for one’s parents, there is no difference between providing food for one’s parents and providing food for one’s animals.
When asked about what it means to be a gentleman, the Master says that a gentleman allows his words to follow his actions, rather than speaking first and acting later. He says that a gentleman participates in “associations but not cliques,” whereas the “small man” participates in cliques instead of associations.
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Themes
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The Master says that those who learn from the people around them without thinking for themselves at all become bewildered. At the same time, those who think but refuse to learn anything from others are “in peril.”
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A duke asks the Master how to get the common people to admire him. The Master tells him that he should honor the common people who are honest and admonish those who are dishonest.
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