Exploring the Analects

Dig out an old report card. At the top, letter grades: English, history, math. Near the bottom, a stock phrase or two: "Works hard." "A pleasure to have in class." The things most of us would say matter more than diagramming a sentence — showing up, ... more

In this twenty-fourth episode, host Elliott Bernstein reads two passages about how Confucius carried himself around the bereaved. 7.9: "When with mourners, the Master would never eat his fill." 7.10: "On days he wept, the Master would not sing." Neit... more

In 1665, London's Lord Mayor ordered every stray dog and cat in the city killed to stop the plague. Those strays were the very thing hunting the rats whose fleas were spreading it. He was not negligent, and he was not malicious — he was wrong, and co... more

Side quests are in every game these days. Help Bopeep find her sheep, track down 900 Korok seeds, spend twenty hours decorating a house you'll barely visit. They can be the best part of a game — but every hour spent on one is an hour not spent on the... more

道不同，不相為謀 — seven characters Chinese speakers still use to tell someone it's time to go their separate ways. But did Confucius mean that people on different paths can't plan together, or that they shouldn't?

In this twenty-first episode, host Elliott... more

What does it mean to call two countries "brothers"? Confucius said it about the ancient states of Lu and Wei — and for 2,000 years, scholars couldn't agree on what he meant.

In passage 13.7, a cryptic seven-character phrase becomes a window into how... more

Clickbait is everywhere — political chaos, freak accidents, Florida Man. And Confucius, who had his own version of this problem 2,500 years ago, had a clear answer: stop feeding it entirely.

Passage 7.21 records the four topics Confucius refused to ... more

You've had an undo button on your email for years. Return policies, apologies, second chances — so much of modern life is fixable that it trains us to be casual. But you can't un-rupture an artery, and you can't un-start a war.

In passage 7.13, Conf... more