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Book 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Analects, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Self-Restraint
Honesty and Integrity
The Individual vs. The Collective
Self-Mastery, Discipline, and Improvement
Summary
Analysis
At one point, Yu and the Master are traveling together. Yu falls behind and meets with an old man and asks him whether he has seen the Master. The old man responds that Yu doesn’t know one type of grain from the other and seems never to have worked with his hands—who can his master be? Later, the old man invites Yu to stay for the night. When Yu meets up with the Master the next day, the Master says that the old man must be a recluse. Yu comments, “Not to enter public life is to ignore one’s duty.”
Here, Confucius’s judgement of the old man’s choice to be a recluse echoes the scene in which his student told him that he should run for office. According to Confucius’s values, it is important for people to be of service to the collective in whatever way they can. Clearly, he believes that people’s lives have most meaning when they are serving the community rather than the self.
Themes
