Who is who in The Analects
The same person comes back across many chapters in a different place each time. Zilu contradicts his teacher and then dies for a post, Yan Hui is praised and goes first. Start with whoever you are curious about and jump straight to the chapters they appear in.
The teacher 1
The one man at the centre of the book. He is in every chapter.
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Confucius
the teacher of The Analects. He said of himself that he was not born knowing, only a man who loved the old and sought it diligently, and he went from state to state looking for a post he never got
Relations master of Zengzi · master of Zilu · master of Zixia · master of Yan Hui · master of Zigong · master of Ran You · master of Zai Wo
The disciples 7
Those who studied under him. They differ enough that the same question gets them different answers.
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Zigong
a disciple thirty-one years younger than Confucius. He asked well, and several of the important answers in *The Analects* come out of his questions, among them the one word to carry for life, which came back as shu
Relations disciple of Confucius
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Zilu
a disciple nine years younger than Confucius. Bold and blunt enough to contradict his teacher to his face, he feared hearing something new while what he had learned was still undone
Relations disciple of Confucius
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Yan Hui
the disciple Confucius valued most, courtesy name Yan Yuan and given name Hui. He was granted the longest stretch his teacher ever allowed anyone for ren, and that stretch was three months
Relations disciple of Confucius
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Zengzi
a disciple more than forty years younger than Confucius. His teacher called him slow, and he left the line about examining himself daily on three counts
Relations disciple of Confucius
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Zixia
a disciple forty-four years younger than Confucius, surnamed Bu and named Shang, and well versed in the texts and the odes. Asking about a line of poetry, he arrived on his own at the conclusion that li comes after
Relations disciple of Confucius
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Ran You
a disciple surnamed Ran and named Qiu. He asked whether to act on what he heard and got the opposite answer to the one Zilu got, and later, gathering taxes for the Ji family, he was told by his teacher that he was no follower of his
Relations disciple of Confucius
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Zai Wo
a disciple surnamed Zai and named Yu. Caught sleeping by day he was called rotten wood, and he argued to his teacher's face that three years of mourning was too long
Relations disciple of Confucius
Appears in
Rulers who came with questions 2
Men who were not his students and asked him about governing all the same.
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Ji Kangzi
head of the Jisun house, which held the real power in Lu. He asked Confucius about government three times, and when he complained of thieves he was told that if he himself did not covet, they would not steal even if paid to
Appears in -
the Duke of She
the man who governed the district of She in Chu. He said that in his own village an upright man had testified when his father took a sheep, and was told that uprightness lies in the two of them concealing for each other
Appears in