Xué Ér () is the first book of the Analects of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

. According to

Zhu Xi Zhu Xi (; ; October 18, 1130 – April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese calligrapher, historian, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Song dynasty. Zhu was influential in the development of Neo-Confucianism. He con ...

, a

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

philosopher in the 12th century, the book Xue Er is the base of moral improvement because it touches upon the basic principles of being a "gentleman" ('' jūnzǐ'', ).

Name

''Xué'' () ''Ér'' () consist of two

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...

. The first character, Xué, means "to learn" as a verb or "the research of something" as a noun. The following character, Ér, is a conjunction between two actions. The title of a book in the Analects is usually related to its first phrase. The book Xué Ér's initial sentence in

Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...

starts with "Xué Ér": ：,？

The Master said, "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?

Although this translation uses only one verb "to learn", other versions translate the whole phrase, "Is it not a pleasure to learn (), and, when it is timely, to practice () what you have learned?

Content

Xing Bing's commentary of the Analects Lunyu Zhengyi () listed several key words of the book Xué Ér. The key words include: Gentleman (),

filial piety In Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoist ethics, filial piety (, ''xiào'') (Latin: pietas) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian '' Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the lat ...

(), humaneness (), doing one's best (), trust (), the foundation of a nation () and the principles of an appropriate friendship (). In the book, Confucius opted for hospitality towards strangers and tolerance of ignorance. Confucius also emphasized on the importance of self introspection (through examples from his disciple

Zengzi Zeng Shen (505–435 BC), better known as Zengzi (Master Zeng), courtesy name Ziyu (), was a Chinese philosopher and disciple of Confucius. He later taught Zisi (Kong Ji), the grandson of Confucius, who was in turn the teacher of Mencius, thus b ...

and his own sayings).

Sources

Analects {{Confucianism-stub