Review of Ni, Peimin, Understanding the analects of Confucius : a new translation of Lunyu with annotations

Abstract

To date, there are about forty complete English translations of the Analects of Confucius. Any new translation that adds to the existing stack faces the challenge of presenting something new and interesting about the text while not sacrificing the faithfulness to the original text. In my view, Ni Peimin’s Understanding the Analects of Confucius accomplishes this feat impressively. It offers readers a new perspective for understanding Confucius and his teachings as recorded in the Analects. This is achieved mainly in two ways. The first is by providing extended annotations on the passages. Unlike many other translations, Ni’s annotations not only include traditional Chinese commentators, but also include modern scholarship on Confucius’s thought, as well as Ni’s own comparative notes on other traditions, such as Daoism, Christianity, and ancient Greek philosophy. In doing so, Ni makes vivid that the Analects is still very much a living text. Another is by presenting Confucius’s teachings as having a gongfu orientation that emphasizes on “the embodiment and manifestation of excellent abilities” (25). Ni’s gongfu reading of the Analects is, at least, a very plausible way of understanding the Analects, which does not seek to have the readers comply with each one of the teachings as moral norms but rather, to have them apply the teachings in their everyday life.