Contents
Very few reliable sources about Confucius exist. The principal biography available to historians is included in Sima Qian's Shiji; but, because the Shiji contains a large amount of (possibly legendary) material not confirmed by other sources, the biographical material on Confucius found in the Analects makes the Analects arguably the most reliable source of biographical information about Confucius. Confucius viewed himself as a "transmitter" of social and political traditions originating in the early Zhou dynasty (c.1000-800 BC), and claimed not to have originated anything (Analects 7.1), but Confucius' social and political ideals were not popular in his time.
Read more about this topic: Analects
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—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
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—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)