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The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics Hardcover – November 6, 2007
by Annping Chin (Author)
For more than two thousand years, Confucius has been an inseparable part of China's history. Yet despite this fame,Confucius the man has been elusive. Now, in The Authentic Confucius, Annping Chin has worked through the most reliable Chinese texts in her quest to sort out what is really known about Confucius from the reconstructions and the guesswork that muddled his memory.
Chin skillfully illuminates the political and social climate in which Confucius lived. She explains how Confucius made the transition from court advisor to wanderer, and how he reluctantly became a professional teacher as he refined his judgment of human character and composed his vision of a moral political order. The result is an absorbing and original book that shows how Confucius lived and thought: his habits and inclinations, his relation to the people of the time, his work as a teacher and as a counselor, his worries about the world and the generations to come.
In this book, Chin brings the historical Confucius within our reach, so that he can lead us into his idea of the moral and to his teachings on family and politics, culture and learning. The Authentic Confucius is a masterful account of the life and intellectual development of a thinker whose presence remains a powerful force today.
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Editorial Reviews
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"Confucius even now remains the mind of China, and always returns again, whatever the regime. But he can be difficult for Westerners to apprehend, because our cultures and his are so different. It is one of the strengths of Annping Chin's The Authentic Confucius that she clears away most of the difficulties, and allows us to approach an understanding of the sage's life, work, and sayings. Like Socrates and Jesus, Confucius relied upon the spoken word, with all its nuances of enigmatic wisdom. Annping Chin helps us to recover those nuances, as no one else has." -- Harold Bloom
"The life of Confucius, China's 'Sage for Ten-Thousand Generations,' began like all others -- in a particular time and place. Although Annping Chin is clearly impressed with the timeless quality of Confucius' teaching, she strives to show us Confucius as he traveled through his life. As she says of his teaching, so too might we say of this book: 'it mirrors a life unfolding, and it is natural.' This may not be 'the' authentic Confucius forever and always, but it is an authentic one -- of his time and place, and for ours." -- Edward L. Shaughnessy, professor of Early Chinese Studies, The University of Chicago
"The teachings of Confucius have survived through periods of political upheaval and brutal suppression for some twenty-five hundred years. Gleaned from her years of study of fragments of ancient texts, Annping Chin has sketched a highly readable and thought-provoking portrait of the life and times of Confucius." -- Henry A. Kissinger
"Meticulously researched and finely judged, Annping Chin's The Authentic Confucius is a perfect companion to the Analects and a wonderful introduction to early Chinese Confucianism." -- Sarah Allan, 1107 professor of Asian Studies, Dartmouth College
"This is a passionate biography of a man who, as Annping Chin puts it, strove 'to keep the idea of the moral within human reach.' It is a fascinating attempt to recover the actual historical figure who did so much to shape one of the world's great civilizations; but it is also a gripping portrait of that rare person who both faced up to 'human form and fate' -- and lovingly embraced what he saw." -- Jonathan Lear, Committee on Social Thought, The University of Chicago
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About the Author
Annping Chin studied mathematics at Michigan State University and received her PhD in Chinese Thought from Columbia University. She was on the faculty at Wesleyan University and currently teaches in the History Department at Yale University, where her fields of study include Confucianism, Taoism, and the Chinese intellectual tradition. She is the author of three previous books: Children of China: Voices from Recent Years, Tai Chen on Mencius, and Four Sisters of Hofei. She has also coauthored, with Jonathan Spence, The Chinese Century: A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years.
Product details
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (November 6, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743246187
ISBN-13: 978-0743246187
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars 8 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,292,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#189 in Confucianism (Books)
#413 in Historical China Biographies
#597 in Chinese Biographies
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Tzu-Yu Jeng
5.0 out of 5 starsIn search of a so-called but long-lost sageFebruary 23, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I am from Taiwan, where because of convoluted historical reasons, Confucius (孔子) is especially highly valued as as sage, as goes the tradition, and high school students are still required to memorize numerous sayings from The Analects (論語).
What Chin did, then, seems particularly valuable to me: to unravel layers of ideology propagation advertised by purposeful rulers, and misconception that has piled up over the course of two thousand years, in order to find the “authentic” Confucius.
Chin traces Confucius’s life in an extremely meticulous manner. She literally quotes different available sources regarding the same event, compares them in details, and carefully adds her own interpretation and guess. She holds disbelief even in Sima Qian (司馬遷)’s well-acclaimed The Record of History (史記). For example, because absence of data of Confucius before his middle age, the narrative begins with his leaving state Lu (魯國). Likewise, when sources contradict each other regarding the route Confucius took and their order, she compares Sima Qian’s account and Zhuangzi’s (莊子), and analyzed which is more reasonable. She often paraphrases the Zuo Commentary (左傳) for pages to supply the reader the background history. This is great, but I have to admit, from time to time it can be rather dry.
Aside from this, what’s equally important is Confucius’s thinking — Chin deals with this beginning mainly in chap. 6. “Well” — the reader may wonder — “can’t you read The Analects yourself?” No, the original text of The Analects contains many archaic expressions even modern Chinese reader cannot understand without referring commentary; while those annotators in Han dynasty, it seems to me, could not decipher many ones either. The consequence is that there are too much interpretation, and too little excavation of original meaning.
(By the way, while it is English version that I read, someday I discovered the Chinese translation of this book in the 2nd hand bookstore, but found that actually original English is easier to read, because Chin’s word-choice reflects her interpretation of the source when meaning is uncertain, which is lost as the translator simply replace original Analects text.)
The lack of jargons in Confucius’s conversation style seem to be a double-edged sword: on the surface, Confucius’s opinion seems amicable and informal; on the other hand, the vagueness hinders a progressive discussion. His frequent change of opinion when facing different audience gave rise to contradictory statements. If you think Confucius appears trite and paradoxical, it is not your fault — he is.
A focus is always the concept “ren” (仁), emblem of Confucian thinking. Many times, direct inquiry about “ren” to Confucius is circumvented by examples of what behaviour counts as “ren-ness”. One might have the impression that “ren” is too all-embracing to be meaningful. All benevolent characters, even conflicting ones, are said by Confucius to be “ren-ness” a “Gentleman / Junzi” (君子) possesses. Put in bookish manner, “ren” has included too many intension so there is no extension left.
(It reminds me of the joke that Newton’s first law may be put in other words that “Everything is either moving or remains still”, and second law is a trivial definition “F := ma”, and the third law seems to be a law but is wrong in presence of EM field, because momentum no longer conserves in naive manner — there are field momentum. The point here is that whether a bunch of words is actually a tautology is not always transparent.)
But this is hardly fair to Confucius. He seemed to have meant something very specific — A Gentleman shows compassion to the world, retains virtue and moderation, and rejoice in the orderliness of ritual music. A Gentleman thinks of the good and evil, rather then power and fame; of the proper, not the strategical.
Thinking of this, I cannot resist to add a point about the concept “Junzi”, that Chin seems not to have made clear. The rendition “Gentleman” captures very well the original sense of “Junzi”, which we easily forget because of the familiar Confucian usage. Literally “a Lord’s son”, the word “Junzi” simply means “aristocrat”, and “Xiaoren” (小人), as opposed to Junzi, simply “commoner” — this is not intended as an obscure metaphor. Some have translated it as “Superior Man”, which totally misses the point.
Think of the time Confucius was. Treachery, dictatorship, tyrannicide, murder … the Spring-Autumn era is in endless war. Confucius, then, is a sad figure. He tried in vain to save the world just beginning to fall apart, by asking us to act “like an aristocrat”, following the ideal perhaps once suitable in the legendary times.
But I don’t think this as classism. Essentially, his point is to ask us to face this sinful world with gentlemanly poise. He expects us to model ancient sage by meticulously following traditional ceremony, and to find comfort in ritual music known only to aristocrats.
It is not without reason that Confucius is often likened to other three well known figures, the Buddha, Socrates, and Jesus, that were also active in the antiquity times. But perhaps it is Confucius about whom least account survived.
We have numerous dialogues featuring Socrates written by Plato. Being quasi-drama, there has been considerable doubt about their accuracy. But Plato’s dialogues were published while Socrates was alive, so it’s suggested it’s unlikely to be drastically different with Socrates’s view.
And the Buddha’s sayings are preserved in the Āgama collection; they fills several bookcase units. The Indian oral tradition are said by scholars to be very reliable.
Lastly, sources about Jesus include not only canonical gospel, but dozens of non-canonical books as well, adding up to thousands of pages. They both build depth to Jesus’s portrayal. Apart from supernatural accounts, at least Jesus’s words are seldom ambiguous.
However, very little sure is known about Confucius. Yes, we have a fragmentary, unordered collection of his sayings in the slim book, The Analects. There are also occasional appearances in history Zuo Commentary. Except for these, however, we have only spurious stories featuring Confucius in the collection Zhuangzi, and the biography of Confucius written by Sima Qian, whose showy storytelling borders on fiction work rather than history.
No wonder many Analects entries remain riddles. We find the puzzling remark that (these translations are all mine) “Confucius met Nanzi”, but have no idea why Zilu was “annoyed”, to which Confucius “vowed that ‘If I had done what you disapprove, may Heaven loathe me, may Heaven loath me!’ ” (子見南子、子路不說。夫子矢之曰、予所否者、天厭之、天厭之。)
What made Zilu unhappy? Was it because Nanzi had a promiscuous reputation? Or did Zilu disapprove the fact that Confucius found job through despicable persuasion, if he did? We simply do not know.
We don’t know, either, the significance that one passersby, Jie Yu, sang to Confucius as thus, “Phoenix, ah, Phoenix! Why is the virtue declining? What has passed we cannot correct, and what is yet to come, we still may pursue. Enough, ah, enough on this! Now the ruler is dangerous.” (鳳兮、鳳兮、何德之衰。往者不可諫、來者猶可追。已而、已而、今之從政者殆而。)
What was this metaphor referring to? Was Jie Yu hinting that a particular political figure would be dangerous? And who was the phoenix (鳳)? Was it Confucius? Did Jie Yu think “the Phoenix” was too noble to be in this messy world? Did he, then, suggest hermitage as an evasion from the world?
Or when Confucius “was in the state Chen, he said, ‘Go back, alas, go back! Youths among our men are reckless and plain — brilliantly forms a piece of cloth, not knowing how to be trimmed.’ ” (子在陳。曰、歸與、歸與。吾黨之小子狂簡、斐然成章、不知所以裁之。)
The word “kuang jian”, rendered here “reckless and plain”, is long disputed. The modern sense of “kuang” is “mad, crazy”, and that of “jian” is “simple, concise”. But “jian” also may be “bamboo slip”, so some suggest that Confucius’s students are “careless in dealing with canonical works”. What’s more confusing, the phrase rendered here “brilliantly forms a piece of cloth” is an archaic idiom that may also stand for “well-written prose”. The analogy is to view writing as stitching, and rhetoric, embroidery; indeed the stem of “wen” (文), “a word, a symbol”, is “pattern, heraldry”.
In the above, I gave a more literal translation than Chin did. Having quoted several excerpts that Chin examined at great length, what I wish to illustrate for the Western reader is what the Analects is actually like. I do not mean to doubt Chin’s scholarship quality — She is incredibly rigorous. Nevertheless, the readers may notice that many words are obscure, even in native tongue’s view.
Yes, I do think Confucius, this untimely thinker, is great, in many timeless way. But despite two-thousand-year quest, the “authentic Confucius” already is lost forever.
3 people found this helpful
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Christian Schlect
5.0 out of 5 starsThe SageDecember 2, 2007
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
A fine book on what is now reasonably thought to be known of the great teacher, Confucius. The author, Annping Chin, writes with clarity and authority on a still revered figure, whose actual life to most is lost in a mythical haze.
People interested in China, ethical living, and governmental theory would profit from this biographical study.
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Edward J. Buttler
4.0 out of 5 starsConfuciusDecember 5, 2012
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A very good companion book for a deeper understanding of his works, Analects. Even though he's been gone
some two thousand years, his words still ring true.
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Interfarfacing Rare Books
5.0 out of 5 starsFive StarsJuly 24, 2014
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Lovely Book
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T. Tran
2.0 out of 5 starsRead more!!!October 21, 2014
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
It is better than the other books I have ordered in the past but it is not peer reviewed by East Asian studies people. It could be more craps as I reas further. They liked to surp. me!
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David Crumm
5.0 out of 5 starsA Superb Book for Western Readers Who Want to Understand a Major Thread in Asian CultureFebruary 1, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Confucius' influence has endured for nearly 2,500 years at the heart of Chinese culture, even though his light occasionally has been eclipsed by various political and cultural movements. In China, Annping Chin points out, he is simply known as "the first teacher."
Just as the figure of Jesus is reinterpreted in each new age -- and there's vigorous debate among Christians and non-Christians over Jesus' life and teachings to this very day -- Confucius also is the target of continual scholarly reinterpretation.
Chin points out that two large caches of ancient manuscripts that relate to Confucius' legacy, which were discovered in 1993, are sparking readjustments in our modern understanding of that legacy. Plus, after a condemnation of Confucian thought as recent as the 1970s in China, his influence is rising again in his homeland.
In her book, she points out that, once again, Chinese government funding is available for scholarly conferences on the Confucian tradition -- an official move with complex interconnections to the current cultural mix in China. Ping has been part of all of this unfolding reinterpretation, traveling widely in China, examining the new manuscripts, attending at least one of these major scholarly conferences.
That's why it's so important to select a recent book like this, published in 2007, in exploring Confucius and his ongoing importance as a spiritual and cultural figure. Books published in other eras spoke to other historical windows into his life and significance.
Chin's work is respected among scholars and she writes with one eye on this elite audience. But, if you're a general reader in this field, you're likely to find this a very helpful book in understanding the "real" Confucius. Ping works hard in this book to limit her overview of his life, work and influence to hard facts attributable to original sources. In other words, this isn't a fanciful "legends of Confucius" treatment.
This means that opening chapters of the book are a little challenging for general readers. In those chapters, Ping works through some of the more complex political situations Confucius faced as a philosopher-for-hire in the service of powerful rulers in his era. But the middle of the book opens up as a fascinating look of his teachings. Plus, Ping's accounts of his followers' distinctive characters and adventures make for flat-out fun spiritual reading.
Her closing chapters look at some of the ways Confucius' body of work was used -- and reinterpreted and sometimes even abused -- in other eras. That's also a very interesting section of her book, especially for Christian readers in the West who are familiar with the many ways that Jesus' teachings bounced through similar waves of reinterpretation down through the centuries. This tendency to human re-interpretation of spiritual sages seems to be a universal yearning.
This is an all-around excellent book for Western readers -- a superb choice as a book to help Westerners understand a major spiritual thread in Asian culture to this day.
26 people found this helpful
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frog
5.0 out of 5 starsan introduction to a great manAugust 11, 2009
Format: Hardcover
The Authentic Confucius is a good introduction to Confucius, his heroes, his followers, and the political climate that existed at the time. Annping Chin attempts to separate fact from fantasy in Kongfuzi's life as recorded in historical records and through the eyes of his disciples and biographers. Though she leans heavily on the Analects, she also uses many texts, especially the Zuo Commentary, and the work of Sima Qian, an imaginative ancient biographer, to give context to some of the Analects' more controversial or fascinating episodes. If you're familiar with the Analects, you may find the different perspectives she presents interesting.
For people who know a little about Kongfuzi from the Analects, one or two other biographies, or from Wikipedia, The Authentic Confucius is an illuminating text.
Those of you that have made a long study of Kongfuzi may find some value in the disparate accounts she digs from various sources. With a bibliography over seven pages long, her list of sources may also be helpful to you.
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