A. Hélène Suárez Girard

Lun Yu

Original title:

Lun yu. Reflexiones y enseñanzas

About the book:

Lun Yu

Often compared to Socrates, Confucius (Master Kong) has never ceased to be present in the two-thousand five hundred year history in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. At times deified, others seen as father of conservative and orthodox Chinese morality, the truth is his thoughts were profoundly innovative in the 4th and 5th Centuries b.C.

In an epoch of profound feudal decadence, Confucius had the audacity to proclaim that all men and women were, in essence, equal, that only their acquisitions differentiated them; he also believed in an art of living and ruling free of the social prejudices of the time, based exclusively on humanity and wisdom, on rejection of competitiveness, in tolerance, flexibility and respect, in knowledge of man and the way of heaven or cosmic order.

His teachings were never fixed or unconditional: they always depended on circumstances and what most benefited his disciples; the exact opposite of the dogma which the orthodoxy of scholars would transform his thought, and label Confucianism.

Like Socrates, Master Kong left no writings. The Lun Yu, a compendium of aphorisms, anecdotes, pieces of conversations and moments of descriptions, is the most reliable testimony of his thought as well as that of his disciples. Lun Yu is the work which most accurately shows the personality and wisdom of this sage, uncontaminated by later interpretations or misinterpretations.

About the author:

Anne-Hélène Suárez has a PHD in Chinese Language and Civilisation from the University of Paris VII. Translator of Lao She and Zhang Xianliang, she has published Cincuenta poemas de Li Bo (Hiperión, 1988), Recordando el pasado en el Acantilado Rojo y otros poemas by Su Dongpo (Hiperión, 1992), as well as other translations from French, English and Russian. Recently, she has published, with the Catalan poet Ramon Dachs, Cent un juejus de Xina Tang (Alfons el Magnànim, 1996).