Reading the Analects: Is What It Says True?

Abstract

In the previous chapter I suggested that a basic function of language as it was employed by Confucius in conversations with his students in the Analects was as “praxis-guiding discourse.” That is to say, he was not so much concerned to convey factual information, or propound a theory, as he was to have his students respond in a particular way to the topic on which he was discoursing or had been asked about. By putting ourselves into the text we can better understand the remark of Zhu Xi quoted in Chapter 2, that when reading, “It is like talking [with the sages] face to face.” Here I want to elaborate on that theme somewhat because of its importance in interacting with the text of the Analects.