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No Chinaman thinks of entering upon a study of the Five Classics until he has mastered and committed to memory a shorter and simpler course known as The Four Books.
The first of these, as generally arranged for students, is the /Lun Yü/ or Analects, a work in twenty short chapters or books, retailing the views of Confucius on a variety of subjects, and expressed so far as possible in the very words of the Master. It tells us nearly all we really know about the Sage, and may possibly have been put together within a hundred years of his death. From its pages we seem to gather some idea, a mere /silhouette/ perhaps, of the great moralist whose mission on earth was to teach duty towards one's neighbour to his fellowmen, and who formulated the Golden Rule: "What you would not others should do unto you, do not unto them!"