Echoes of the Classics in the Voice of Confucius

In the 2500 years since a man known as Kongzi taught the classics and advised the rulers of different states, his life story has become intertwined with traditional Chinese culture and its literary canons. Classical literary works like theClassic of Odes, theClassic of Documents, and theRecords of Ritesnot only were said to contain the curriculum that he used, but also provided the norms that newer stories about his actions and conversations were said to express. Confucius, as he became known in the West, embodied these classical ideals and was portrayed as a sage philosopher, a model teacher, a prophetic statesman, a pious family member, and an ideal moral decision‐maker. He has also been criticized as a didactic traditionalist, a champion of favoritism and inequality, and an agent of the forces of the “Landlord Class.” This chapter centers on a fundamental literary dimension of stories about Confucius by looking at the period during which stories about his life were told as means to transform the values and principles of a set of canonical texts known as the classics into narratives.