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Rating: 
Summary: what a great read!
Review: For reasons that are hard to fathom, this translation of the Analects of Confucius has gotten a lot of good press. In actuality, it is uninspired and derivative. Furthermore, the translator's notes show a cursory knowledge of the secondary literature, and a fairly banal understanding of the text itself. And isn't it a little precious to be writing a translation under a pseudonym? Other (equally good or better) translations of this work include those by D.C. Lau (Penguin Books), Arthur Waley (Vintage Books), and James Legge (Dover Books).
Rating: 
Summary: Only partially successful
Review: A fresh and lively translation, but one that flip-flops between "goodness" and "humanity" in translating _ren_, which weakens it substantially. Copious endnotes follow the text, but the text doesn't provide references to them. Contemporary language. Pinyin romanization.
Rating:
Summary: Only partially successful
Review: A fresh and lively translation, but one that flip-flops between "goodness" and "humanity" in translating _ren_, which weakens it substantially. Copious endnotes follow the text, but the text doesn't provide references to them. Contemporary language. Pinyin romanization.
Rating:
Summary: what a great read!
Review: asia is in crisis. confucius will show us how to get out of it... i gave it as a gift to a friend (a university professor). another friend, a business tycoon, was with us. he browsed through the book, loved what he saw, and offered to buy it on the spot. i promised to get another one for him, so i'm buying a second one. this shows that confucius is for university professors and business tycoons. read it, you'll love it.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not a Confucius nor a China expert, but ...
Review: I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Granted, I haven't read other translations of the Analects, so my rating is for the book itself more than as a comparison to other translations. The fact that Confucius lived thousands of years ago is amazing to me ... the things he says apply to people throughout the ages, and they're full of wisdom. Having read the book, I find myself trying to be a bit more of a Confucian gentleman than I did before reading it. Confucius' teachings about humanity and being a gentleman span across the ages. I'm very glad I read this book. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is because I can't compare it to other translations, and it seems a little improper to rate a translated book without comparing it to other translations. But I personally found Leys' lines to be easily understandable and interesting, even if I have no way of ascertaining their accuracy with the original text.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not a Confucius nor a China expert, but ...
Review: I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Granted, I haven't read other translations of the Analects, so my rating is for the book itself more than as a comparison to other translations. The fact that Confucius lived thousands of years ago is amazing to me ... the things he says apply to people throughout the ages, and they're full of wisdom. Having read the book, I find myself trying to be a bit more of a Confucian gentleman than I did before reading it. Confucius' teachings about humanity and being a gentleman span across the ages. I'm very glad I read this book. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is because I can't compare it to other translations, and it seems a little improper to rate a translated book without comparing it to other translations. But I personally found Leys' lines to be easily understandable and interesting, even if I have no way of ascertaining their accuracy with the original text.
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