Knowledge index
Knowledge index
When The Analects leads you to people, places, concepts, and texts, this index provides citable entry pages; each entry maps back to the passages that mention it.
English person and place entries are in the lists below. Full biographies and geography maps are published in Chinese at /zh-Hans/people and /zh-Hans/places.
People
29 entries
Confucius
The central figure of The Analects: teacher, moral exemplar, and political thinker.
Yan Yuan
A beloved disciple known for learning, simplicity, and nearness to ren.
Zi Lu
A direct and courageous disciple, often taught through questions of action and government.
Zi Gong
A disciple known for speech, diplomacy, and probing questions about virtue.
Zi Xia
A disciple associated with learning, literary cultivation, and ritual study.
Zi Zhang
A disciple who asks about government, virtue, and the conduct of a scholar.
Zeng Zi
A disciple known for self-examination, filial conduct, and transmission.
You Zi
A disciple whose sayings frame filial conduct, roots, and ritual harmony.
Ran You
A disciple often linked with government service and practical ability.
Zhong Gong
A disciple praised in discussions of ren, government, and character.
Zai Wo
Zai Wo (also Zaiwo or Tsai Wo; Chinese 宰我, also 宰予; Tsai Yu in Legge) is a disciple in the Analects. This page answers who Zai Wo is from the source text: five chapters on the land altars, daytime sleep, benevolence and the well, the speech grouping, and three years' mourning. Open the passages below, or the reading note.
Zi You
A disciple associated with filial conduct, ritual, music, and local governance.
Fan Chi
A disciple who asks practical questions about ren, knowledge, filial conduct, and work.
Gongxi Hua
A disciple appearing in contexts of aspiration and ritual service.
Min Zijian
A disciple remembered for filial virtue and principled conduct.
Nan Gong Kuo
A figure linked with virtue, worthiness, and judgments of historical models.
Yuan Xian
A disciple associated with poverty, commitment to the Way, and scholarly integrity.
Ji Family
A powerful Lu family central to discussions of ritual, power, and overreach.
Meng Family
A Lu aristocratic family appearing in questions on filial conduct, ritual, and politics.
Duke Ai of Lu
Duke Ai of Lu (鲁哀公; also Ai Gong or Duke Ai) is the Lu ruler who questions Confucius and his circle in the Analects. He asks how the people can be made to submit, which disciple loved to learn, and—through You Ruo—what to do in a year of scarcity; he also asks Zai Wo about the land altars and hears a request to punish a usurper. The passages are linked below.
Duke Ding of Lu
Duke Ding of Lu (鲁定公; also Ding Gong or Duke Ding) is the Lu ruler named in two Analects passages. He asks how a prince should employ ministers and how ministers should serve their prince, and whether one sentence can prosper or ruin a state. Those two source chapters are linked below.
Duke Jing of Qi
A ruler of Qi who asks about government and proper roles.
Duke Ling of Wei
Duke Ling of Wei (卫灵公; also Wei Ling Gong, Wei Ling, or Duke Ling) is the Wei ruler named in the Analects—not Book 15, whose title is taken from opening words. One source sentence records Confucius calling his course unprincipled, then naming officers for guests, the ancestral temple, and the army, which is why Wei did not fall. That passage is linked below.
Yang Huo
A powerful Lu figure showing the tension between office, power, and the Way.
Guan Zhong
A famous statesman used to discuss achievement, ren, and historical judgment.
Bo Yi and Shu Qi
Ancient worthies associated with integrity, yielding power, and freedom from resentment.
Weizi, Jizi, and Bigan
Three worthies of late Yin, each embodying a different response to disorder.
Yao, Shun, and Yu
Yao, Shun, and Yu (尧、舜、禹; also searched as yao shun yu, yao shun, or yaoshun) are the ancient sage kings the Analects uses as a measure of rule. Passages praise Yao as sovereign, Shun as governing without exertion, Yu as without flaw, and the Yao Yue charge that passes the mean from Yao to Shun to Yu. This index gathers every source sentence that names them.
Tang, King Wen, King Wu, and the Duke of Zhou
Sage rulers and the Duke of Zhou, symbols of ritual order, virtue, and institutions.
Places
10 entries
Lu
Confucius's home state and a frequent setting for political and ritual questions.
Qi
A major state tied to Duke Jing, the Shao music, and Guan Zhong.
Wei
A state visited by Confucius, linked with political service and withdrawal.
Song
A state connected with Confucius's travels, ritual, and historical figures.
Chen and Cai
States associated with hardship during Confucius's travels.
Chu
A southern state linked with reclusion and political judgment.
Wu
A state appearing in contexts of marriage, ritual, and history.
Kuang
A place of danger for Confucius, showing confidence in the Way amid peril.
Mount Tai
A ritual and political symbol associated with sacrifice and overreach.
Yi River
The river in Zeng Dian's aspiration, symbolizing a humane way of life.
Concepts
11 entries
Ren
A central virtue linking humaneness, self-discipline, reciprocity, and noble conduct.
Li
Ritual propriety as the unity of social form and inward reverence.
Yi
Rightness and appropriateness, the noble person's measure amid interests.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness in speech, government, and friendship.
Filial conduct
Filial conduct as familial care, ritual practice, and a root of ren.
Junzi
The noble person: an ideal of virtue, rightness, learning, and self-cultivation.
Small person
The contrast to the noble person: partiality, selfishness, and uncultivated conduct.
Loyalty and reciprocity
Doing one's utmost and extending oneself to others, a practical path of ren.
Government
Government as moral rectification, virtue, and selecting the worthy.
Learning
Learning as long-term practice of cultivation, ritual understanding, and virtue.
Music
Music paired with ritual, shaping emotion, order, and moral education.
Texts and eras
3 entries