Reddit mentions: The best confucianism books

We found 13 Reddit comments discussing the best confucianism books. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 9 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

1. Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics)

    Features:
  • HACKETT
Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics)
Specs:
Height8.5 Inches
Length5.75 Inches
Number of items1
Weight0.93916923612 Pounds
Width0.75 Inches
▼ Read Reddit mentions

4. The Analects of Confucius

Used Book in Good Condition
The Analects of Confucius
Specs:
Height9.69 Inches
Length7.44 Inches
Weight0.35 Pounds
Width0.16 Inches
▼ Read Reddit mentions

5. Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

    Features:
  • Oxford University Press USA
Confucianism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Specs:
Height4.4 Inches
Length6.7 Inches
Number of items1
Weight0.31085178942 Pounds
Width0.5 Inches
▼ Read Reddit mentions

7. Confucian Analects, The Great Learning & The Doctrine of the Mean

    Features:
  • Rich in Omega Fatty Acids
  • Promotes Energy
  • Great source of fiber
Confucian Analects, The Great Learning & The Doctrine of the Mean
Specs:
Height8.64 Inches
Length5.36 Inches
Number of items1
Release dateJune 1971
Weight1.19 Pounds
Width1.09 Inches
▼ Read Reddit mentions

8. Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics)

Hackett Publishing Company Inc
Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics)
Specs:
Height8.25 Inches
Length5.25 Inches
Number of items1
Weight0.68784225744 Pounds
Width0.5 Inches
▼ Read Reddit mentions

9. Confucian Moral Self Cultivation

Hackett Publishing Company
Confucian Moral Self Cultivation
Specs:
Height8.25 Inches
Length5.25 Inches
Number of items1
Weight0.37699046802 Pounds
Width0.25 Inches
▼ Read Reddit mentions

🎓 Reddit experts on confucianism books

The comments and opinions expressed on this page are written exclusively by redditors. To provide you with the most relevant data, we sourced opinions from the most knowledgeable Reddit users based the total number of upvotes and downvotes received across comments on subreddits where confucianism books are discussed. For your reference and for the sake of transparency, here are the specialists whose opinions mattered the most in our ranking.
Total score: 4
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 3
Number of comments: 2
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 3
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 2
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 2
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 2
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 2
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 1
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 1
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1
Total score: 1
Number of comments: 1
Relevant subreddits: 1

idea-bulb Interested in what Redditors like? Check out our Shuffle feature

Shuffle: random products popular on Reddit

Top Reddit comments about Confucianism:

u/zobaleh · 3 pointsr/Sino

u/Erebus_of_darkness, u/Osroes-the-300th

There is a helpful and basic introductory series called "History of Imperial China". I have not read their books on the Yuan & Ming or the Qing, but I liked what I saw in their book on the Tang. They're basic, topical, and makes for an easy overview.

In America, the "New Qing" school mostly dominates discussion of Qing Dynasty history. China tends to view the Manchu Qing (and the Mongol Yuan) as part of a multicultural "China" state that has existed since time immemorial. "New Qing" disputes that by essentially arguing that the Manchu only considered "China" as one part of their empire, and thus ruled over Buddhist theocratic Tibet, Buddhist nomadic Mongolia, and Muslim Xinjiang (among others) differently from how it administered core China. This obviously ruffles feathers in China, since this ethnic-focused historiography seems to be trying to start something, but both sides of the ocean can probably agree that it at least provides a way of looking at things, including at ethnic relationships in Qing China. For New Qing, China Marches West is perhaps the most salient right now. You can also look at The Manchus (and look at The Tibetans in the same series while you're at it, since Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetans played important roles in the Ming, Qing, and modern China). Mark Eliot also is a prominent "New Qing" professor, and this seems to be his hallmark book, The Manchu Way.

During the Ming Dynasty, the Neo-Confucianism ideology solidified and became the guiding philosophy of East Asia. For a primary source peek at this philosophy, this translation of Wang Yangming seems a decent start.

The Forbidden City is the crowning achievement of Chinese palatial architecture, a culmination of imperial wisdom transmitted across thousands of years. No less, this book is a great, short introductory resource that is visually pleasing. I don't think it's a direct translation of the author's authoritative Chinese works, but he is the foremost expert on the architecture of the Forbidden City, and Nancy Steinhardt is an excellent authority on traditional Chinese architecture.

See if you can't find this book, The Class of 1761, in a library, going through the minutiae of the Chinese imperial examination system. I plan to look at this as well.

Chinese literature and opera came into maturity during the Ming and Qing Dynasty. So if you're feeling for long reads, read any of the Four Classic Novels of China. In particular, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while not covering Ming or Qing (written in late Yuan/early Ming) will let you interface with literally any East Asian since they will know all the anecdotes and the Dream of the Red Chamber is noted for its extreme depth (entire departments devoted to studying it) and particular insight into mid-Qing society.

For opera, probably the Peony Pavilion is good enough, as a classic of Kunqu opera, the OG Chinese opera.

And honestly, just go to chinaknowledge.de ... It's a very comprehensive website surprisingly enough.

u/Arkholt · 1 pointr/latterdaysaints
  • Confucius' Analects: Some things in Confucius don't exactly fit in with my world view (such as his and later Confucians' view of women), and some of the specifics don't conform to the gospel (such as sticking with Chinese rituals of ancestor worship), but most of the ideas and concepts are incredible and extremely practical in everyday life. It's all about cultivating oneself and one's mind, doing the proper things to conform with the Way. I highly recommend Edward Slingerland's translation, which includes translations of important commentaries.

  • Dao de jing by Laozi: Opposes Confucius on many things, but still some incredible stuff there. Lots of stuff about letting go and allowing things to happen without trying so hard to push them in the exact direction you want. In most things, I lean towards Confucius, but in creative endeavors I lean toward Laozi. More and more, however, I lean toward Laozi, because I realize there are things that are outside of my control that I have to let go. It's very hard for me to do, and I'm nowhere near mastering it, but I'm working on it.

  • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster: The best book on the importance of a well-rounded education. Everything you learn, everything you can learn, is important, and while you may not see a use for a particular thing in your life right now, it doesn't mean you'll never use it. Also, it's the best children's book with the highest number of great puns.

  • Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon: This book is great for anyone in any creative endeavor, be it art, music, writing, or even business. It's all about where to get great ideas from, and how most of the time, you have to steal them. This doesn't mean you plagiarize, but you take them and make them your own and make them something new. It's a tiny book that packs a big punch. It's really opened my mind to the possibilities of creativity. How this relates to the gospel... I'm not quite sure yet. But it's changed my life and mindset in so many ways, I had to share it.

u/kusimanse · 4 pointsr/badEasternPhilosophy

I'm not at home, which means I don't have any of my books, so this will be unsourced...

but

I think it comes because plenty of relatively famous Confucianists made some pretty wildly stupid policy proposals. One of the ones in mencius and then again by some neo-confucianists in the Song (I think?) dynasty was to abolish the imperial system and reinstitute a feudal (ie based off of Zhou-era feudal practices) system, which was a complete and total disaster when anyone was idiotic enough to try.

Like, this was a really monumentally stupid idea. If the Song era neo-Confucians had their policies implemented... There are so many people with huge stakes in the empire that any attempt at instantly pushing this kind of reform is pretty much guaranteed to lead to civil war. Even if you win, the feudal system was a bit of a mess and led into the warring states, I'm not really sure how this isn't going to be repeated. Either you keep enough control over your zhuhou/governors that it is still the empire, or you don't, they start fighting, and after another unnecessary civil war the winner reestablishes the empire anyways. (I think I kinda got this take from a book called something like 'End of Empire' (帝国的终结), but I idk for sure)

They thought this would be a good idea because of a rather misguided view of the early Zhou dynasty being some sort of utopia, and the decline in li/rise of greed/[insert whatever you want to show is good/bad here] led to the current corrupted state. They also had various silly ideas how to rule: if a ruler simply set a proper moral example and helping the people, then everyone will follow, establishing music/rituals and being just like Yao and Shun will make everything perfect, etc.

The bureaucrats who actually ran the empire tended to ignore nonsense like this and were somewhat more practical, despite mostly being Confucians (depending on the era).

back to
>When did Confucius get the reputation of a practically ineffective politician who is remembered more by chance than through any well-deserved admiration? I feel like this is something I've been seeing more of lately...

Confucius is about far more than just how to run a state (unlike, say, legalism :P), so I don't know why people would let this color their entire view of Confucianism. Also, some parts of it did work fairly well, the civil examination system etc. probably should be seen as a huge Confucian administrative successes, considering the era... Maybe the bureaucracy as a whole, although that depends how much you think the whole 'confucianism on the outside, legalism on the inside' thing is true.

So I think this is true to a degree, but shouldn't give you a totally negative image of him?

but take this with a grain of salt because:

  1. This is purely off of memory and unsourced

  2. i think the general acceptance of mencius over xunzi was a mistake and led to a lot of stuff like this, and some degree of legalist ideas are necessary when running a state (which are both definitely debatable), so I'm just a little bit biased :P

    As for book, we probably should have a section of Confucianism in the useful link section >_> Unfortunately, most of my reading has been in Chinese, and I don't have any of my books with me, but Sources of Chinese Tradition is a pretty good overview of primary sources up to modern times, a lot of which can be hard to find in English. As it is mostly primary sources though, and context/analysis is really important... I can try to find more after I'm back home, if you want?

    Also, this translation of Xunzi is really, really good. But, primary sources, blah, blah, blah.

    This is a lot, but hopefully answers your question?
u/Temujin_123 · 2 pointsr/latterdaysaints

I took a couple eastern studies courses at BYU and have read (most of) The Teachings of Buddha & The Analects of Confucius. I have gained a profound respect for those great teachers and it has infused my faith and attitudes with additional peace and insight.

Remember, one of the core LDS tenants is to seek after anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy. That includes (sometimes especially) things outside the LDS or Christian faith.

u/Hynjia · 2 pointsr/simpleliving

I'm just now considering reading Mengzi as a direct result of reading Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy.

I think I like Chinese philosophy over the Greeks because of the fact that it's centered around community and doing what is best for society and, thus, isn't as individualistic as the virtue ethics of Aristotle and Socrates.

The Tao Te Ching was mentioned in the Intro book, and I've read it before many years ago. But...idk...it doesn't seem to have what I'm personally looking for as far as something I can go to when I'm looking for answers to life's problems.

u/BearJew13 · 1 pointr/Confucianism

I highly recommend Edward Slingerland's translation of the Analects because he shares verse by verse commentaries from many of the famous historical Chinese commentaries on the text. This will greatly help you understand the context in which the Analects was written, as well as help you enter into the dialogue and conversation that the Analects was meant to provoke. As far as I'm aware, Slingerland's translation is the only english translation that gives a wide variety of famous historical Chinese commentaries on the Analects, but translated into English.

u/zenfunk · 1 pointr/philosophy

http://www.amazon.com/Confucian-Analects-Great-Learning-Doctrine/dp/0486227464/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293035531&sr=8-1

this is a great start. a lot of asian philosophy studies in academia utilize this as a starter. i highly recommend it.

u/chewingofthecud · 1 pointr/daoism

Cool! I knew the instructor's name sounded familiar. Let us know how it goes.

u/samort7 · 2 pointsr/China

Link?

EDIT: I wrote his name wrong. Here it is at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Confucius-Analects-Hackett-Classics/dp/0872206351

Bless him for using Pinyin! It makes me so irritated to see people coming up with new versions of the analects not using Pinyin.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/Buddhism

I would have to agree with you. Especially in terms of the nature of the self, there is little argument over the individual self and what that means, even though human nature and the cultivation of the self takes a front row seat in both Mengzi and Xunzi. I would take that as perhaps an indication of how neither of them really thought that was a problem they would have to deal with, rather than something they just ignored (I may be mistaken in thinking talk of self-cultivation implies that a self must exist).

The real conflict between Confucianism and Buddhism comes after Buddhism was integrated into China through the Han and up into the Tang dynasties. At which point Neo-confucianism started to appear as a result, much of which would take Mengzi as their standard. This would give rise to the orthodox Confucianism we can see today, which is based mainly on Zhu Xi and his interpretation of Mengzi.

For anyone looking for a great read on Mengzi that won't take much time, I would recommend this book and if you want to actually read Mengzi, I've been using this tranlsation and commentary. Ivanhoe also goes on to look at Neo-Confucianism, so if anyone is looking to see arguments from Confucianism against Buddhism, that is highly recommended.