Becoming human, together.
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
No surviving book can securely be described as a work personally written by Confucius. The Analects is a multigenerational collection. This catalogue includes all Five Classics traditionally associated with his transmission, plus Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean and Classic of Filial Piety; Mencius and Xunzi are later developments. The traditional lost Classic of Music is not a recoverable separate book. These boundaries are a map of the received tradition, not an exhaustive inventory of excavated manuscripts or every later Confucian commentary.
Twenty received books collect conversations, brief sayings and remembered conduct associated with Confucius and his disciples. Compiled over generations, they explore learning, humane relationships, ritual, government and the demanding work of becoming trustworthy.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)This later Confucian collection records debates with rulers and rival thinkers about moral development and legitimate government. Mencius argues that human beings possess beginnings of compassion, shame, respect and judgment that need cultivation and supportive conditions.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)Xunzi develops an argumentative Confucian philosophy of education, ritual, language and government. Against an uncomplicated appeal to spontaneous goodness, he argues that unregulated desires generate conflict and that deliberate learning makes an ordered moral life possible.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)Originally transmitted as a chapter of the Book of Rites, this brief text links personal cultivation to household order, good government and peace. Its later elevation among the Four Books, especially through Zhu Xi, reshaped Confucian education.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)This Book of Rites chapter, later one of the Four Books, explores appropriate conduct through centrality, harmony and sincerity. Its traditional attribution to Confucius’s grandson Zisi should be distinguished from the historical formation of its received text.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)A dialogue attributed to Confucius and Zengzi presents filial conduct as a basis of education and government. Its compact argument expands family obligation into political order; the attribution of speeches does not establish that either speaker composed the text.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)One of the Five Classics, this anthology preserves 305 poems with text, alongside titles for six additional pieces. Songs of courtship, labour, ritual and praise became resources for moral education; Confucius’s supposed editorial role is a later tradition, not established authorship.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)This member of the Five Classics collects speeches, counsels and accounts associated with exemplary early rulers. Its received history includes genuine early material, later compositions and a complex controversy over Old Text chapters; attributing the whole collection to Confucius is untenable.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)A divination manual organised around 64 hexagrams became a major philosophical classic through layers of commentary. The Ten Wings were traditionally associated with Confucius, but modern scholarship does not treat that association as secure authorship.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)The received collection of 49 chapters combines ritual descriptions with discussions of education, music, mourning and government. It includes Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean, later circulated independently; it is not a handbook personally authored by Confucius.
Explore this workVisit the source(new tab)These terse annals record events in the state of Lu and form one of the Five Classics. Tradition credits Confucius with editing their wording to express praise and blame; the historical extent of his involvement cannot be established securely.
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