As a comparative study of the virtue ethics of Aristotle and Confucius, this book explores how they each reflect upon human good and virtue out of their respective cultural assumptions, conceptual frameworks, and philosophical perspectives. It does not simply take one side as a framework to understand the other; rather, it takes them as mirrors for each other and seeks to develop new readings and perspectives of both ethics that would be unattainable if each were studied on its own.

Confucius is one of our very best thinkers, a model for living a self-aware and virtuous life. "The Complete Confucius: The Analects, The Doctrine Of The Mean, And The Great Learning," brings together the most important Confucian texts with an introduction by Nicholas Tamblyn, and is part of The Essential Series by Golding Books. Confucius lived from 551-479 BC. The principles he espoused largely reflected the values and traditions in China at the time. Rather than create a formal theory, Confucius desired that his disciples study, learning and mastering the classic older texts, and affirmed that the superior person seeks and loves learning for the sake of learning, and righteousness for the sake of righteousness.

The Great Learning One of the "Four Books" in Confucianism Confucius Translated by James Legg The Great Learning was one of the "Four Books" in Confucianism. The Great Learning had come from a chapter in the Classic of Rites which formed one of the Five Classics. It consists of a short main text attributed to the teachings of Confucius and then ten commentary chapters accredited to one of Confucius' disciples, Zengzi. The ideals of the book were supposedly Confucius's; however the text was written after his death. The "Four Books" were selected by the neo-Confucian Zhu Xi during the Song Dynasty as a foundational introduction to Confucianism and examinations for the state civil service in China came to follow his lead. The text sets up a number of controversies that have underlain Chinese philosophy and political thinking. For example, one major controversy has been to define exactly the investigation of things. What things are to be investigated and how has been one of the crucial issues of Chinese philosophy. One of the first steps to understanding The Great Learning is to understand how to "investigate things." This did not consist of scientific inquiry and experimentation, but introspection, building on what is already "known" of "principle." True introspection was supposed to allow the mind to become all knowing with regards to morality, relationships, civic duty and nature.

The Analects are also called the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Confucius, or the Lun Yu, and are an old Chinese book written of a wide collection of ideas and sayings credited to the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his peers. It is believed to have been compiled and written by Confucius's followers. It might have been written during the Warring States period (477-221 BC), and it reached its final structure during the mid-Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). By the early Han dynasty, the Analects were thought of as simply a commentary on the Five Masterpieces, but the situation with the Analects developed to be one of the central texts of Confucianism toward the end of that dynasty. His essential goal in teaching his students was to produce ethically well-mannered men who might convey themselves with gravity, talk accurately, and demonstrate perfect integrity in all things.

Entire text of the Analects of Confucius in large, readable characters, and beneath this Legge's full translation, which has been accepted and the definitive, standard English version. Full chinese text, English translation on same page.

In this engaging volume, Daniel Gardner explains the way in which the Four Books--Great Learning, Analects, Mencius, and Maintaining Perfect Balance--have been read and understood by the Chinese since the twelfth century. Selected passages in translation are accompanied by Gardner's comments, which incorporate selections from the commentary and interpretation of the renowned Neo-Confucian thinker, Zhu Xi (1130-1200). This study provides an ideal introduction to the basic texts in the Confucian tradition from the twelfth through the twentieth centuries. It guides the reader through Zhu Xi's influential interpretation of the Four Books, showing how Zhu, through the genre of commentary, gave new coherence and meaning to these foundational texts. Since the Four Books with Zhu Xi's commentary served as the basic textbook for Chinese schooling and the civil service examinations for more than seven hundred years, this book illustrates as well the nature of the standard Chinese educational curriculum.

Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung are two of the central texts of early Chinese thought, encapsulating Confucian philosophy on the Way of moral cultivation and spiritual attainment. Traditionally held to be the work of two of Confucius's closest disciples, the books were compiled in their present form late in the second or first century BCE and have occupied a central position in educational and political life for almost a thousand years throughout the East Asian cultural sphere. The text focus on the connection between internal self-cultivation and the external realisation of one's moral core in the fulfilment of the practical aims of Confucian life: the observance of ritual, the proper conduct of personal relationships, and the grand enterprise of maintaining order in the state and the world.