Who is Who
Legge's romanisations can be hard to keep straight — Tsze-lu, Tsze-kung, Tsze-hsia all look alike on the page. Here is a guide to the Master, the disciples who question and contradict him, the rulers who consult him, and the ancient sage-kings he holds up as the measure of everything.
The Master
The Master K'ung-tsze · Chung-ni
Confucius himself — teacher, sometime minister of his home state of Lu, and lifelong wanderer in search of a ruler who would heed him. Nine-tenths of the book is his voice, introduced simply as 'The Master said.'
The Disciples
Yen Hui Yen Yuan · Hui
Confucius's best-loved disciple: poor, joyful in his mean lane, and the only one the Master ever called a true lover of learning. His early death grieved Confucius more than any other loss.
Tsze-lu Chung-yu · Chi Lu
The brave, blunt, impetuous disciple — older than most, a man of action whom the Master leaned on and forever tried to temper. 'He will come to no natural death,' Confucius feared; and he did fall in battle.
Tsze-kung Ts'ze
Eloquent, worldly, and quick — a diplomat and successful merchant. His questions are among the sharpest in the book, and his praise of the Master among its most moving.
The philosopher Tsang Tsang Shan
A grave, earnest younger disciple who 'daily examined himself on three points.' Tradition makes him a principal transmitter of Confucius's teaching to later generations.
The philosopher Yu Yu Zo
A senior disciple whose sayings open Book I. His teaching that filial and fraternal duty is 'the root of all benevolent actions' sets a keynote for the whole work.
Tsze-hsia Shang
A scholarly disciple linked with the handing-down of the classics. His own pointed sayings on learning and office crowd the closing Book XIX.
Tsze-chang
An ambitious younger disciple, eager for office and for lofty standards of conduct — sometimes thought to overshoot the mean.
Tsze-yu Yen Yu
A disciple noted for ritual and letters who, as governor of Wu-ch'ang, ruled by ceremony and music.
Tsai Wo Tsai Yu
A clever but wayward disciple, more than once rebuked — most famously caught sleeping by day: 'Rotten wood cannot be carved.'
Zan Yu Ch'iu · Yen Ch'iu
A capable, practical disciple who served the powerful Chi family — and was disowned by the Master for taxing the people to swell his masters' wealth.
Chung-kung Yung
A disciple of humble birth of whom the Master said he 'might occupy the place of a prince' — worth is not inherited.
Fan Ch'ih
A younger disciple whose plain questions — what is benevolence? what is wisdom? — draw from the Master some of his clearest replies.
Tsze-ch'in
A disciple who appears chiefly asking after the Master — how he learns, what he is like at home.
Rulers & Officials
The Duke Ai Duke Ai of Lu
Ruler of Lu, Confucius's home state, in his later years — a duke largely powerless before the great families.
Chi K'ang Chi K'ang-tsze
Head of the Chi family — the over-mighty ministers who really governed Lu. He repeatedly sounds Confucius out on how to rule.
The Ancient Sage-Kings
Yao
A legendary sage-emperor, Confucius's image of majesty — so vast in virtue 'the people could find no name for it.'
Shun
Raised from obscurity to be Yao's chosen heir, a sage-king who is said to have governed by sheer virtue, 'doing nothing' yet ordering all.
Yu the Great Yu
Tamer of the great floods and founder of the Hsia dynasty. Confucius 'can find no flaw' in him: plain in his own life, lavish toward the spirits and the land.
King Wan King Wen
Founder-sage of the house of Chau and embodiment of culture (wén). Confucius felt himself heir to his cause: 'is not the cause of truth lodged here in me?'
King Wu
Son of King Wan, who completed the Chau conquest of the Yin (Shang) and founded the dynasty Confucius revered.
The Duke of Chau Duke of Zhou
Brother of King Wu and model regent, in Confucius's eyes the architect of Chau ritual and good government. To stop dreaming of him was, for the Master, a sign of his own decay.