Author(s): Confucius (Author), Brian Bruya (Translator), Wenwen Li (Translator)
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication Date: March 10, 2026
Language: English
Print length: 616 pages
ISBN-10: 0691276463
ISBN-13: 9780691276465
Book Description
The first complete English translation of the Dialogues, a rediscovered companion to the Analects
Labeled a forgery and ignored for centuries, the Dialogues of Confucius was nevertheless preserved and passed down through the generations, purportedly a companion to the Analects. Recent archaeological finds and renewed analysis now suggest that the Dialogues can be accepted as authentic and that it accurately represents the thinking of Confucius on a wide array of topics. In this book, Brian Bruya and Wenwen Li offer the first complete translation of the text into English as well as a detailed introduction discussing Confucian philosophy, the history of the text, and the debates around its authenticity. This new translation shows that the Dialogues deserves a rightful place next to the Analects. In the Dialogues, as in the Analects, Confucius converses with his students and local potentates. The topics range from education to social norms to cosmology, and from cultivating individual virtues to instituting a meritocratic government.
As Bruya and Li argue, the main value of the Dialogues lies in its many philosophical clarifications and elaborations. At its core, it offers a valuable resource for understanding Confucius, his interactions with his students, and his philosophy. Each chapter includes both the original Chinese text and the English translation. The introduction includes a philosophical lexicon, and a 600-entry glossary at the end of the book provides context from the time of Confucius, enabling readers to understand how Confucius viewed his place in the world.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A magnificent new translation. . . . We now know much more about Confucius the person, and about the context for some of the puzzling quotes in the Analects. Best of all, we learn new arguments that push the boundaries of the rich and complex Confucian tradition in new directions.”—Daniel A. Bell, Times Literary Supplement
“[
Dialogues of Confucius is] beautifully bound and printed. . . . Based on the most updated scholarship, this edition is destined to become a standard work in the English language for a long time to come.”—Alex Lo, South China Morning Post
Review
“This is a very important text that has long needed a full English translation, and Bruya and Li have done so with great skill and expertise. Their work gives readers a broader and more accurate picture of Confucius, his students, and early Confucianism.”—Alexus McLeod, author of Myth and Identity in the Martial Arts: Creating the Dragon
“On the same level as the
Analects, the Dialogues of Confucius is required reading for anyone seeking an accurate, complete, and systematic understanding of Confucius and Confucianism, ancient Chinese culture, current Chinese scholarship, and Chinese thought. In this book, Brian Bruya and Wenwen Li have mastered its philosophy and have done a great service by translating it into English.”—Yang Chaoming, Advanced Institute for Confucian Studies at Shandong University
“The publication of this exegesis and definitive translation of the
Dialogues of Confucius by comparative philosophers Brian Bruya and Li Wenwen occasions nothing less than a thorough rethinking of our Confucius ‘man and his philosophy’ sources. Their compilation and translation of a critical text together with a glossary of key philosophical terms is a turn in global scholarship that opens up new and exciting avenues for research in classical Confucian philosophy. First among these contributions perhaps is that, through a capacious literary survey and a close analysis of past scholarship on the Dialogues, they construct a nuanced and compelling argument for elevating this document to complement the Analects and serve the next generation as a previously understudied extension in our resources for the life and thinking of China’s greatest philosopher.”—Roger T. Ames, cotranslator of The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation
About the Author
Brian Bruya is professor of philosophy at Eastern Michigan University. He is the author of Ziran: The Philosophy of Spontaneous Self-Causation and the editor of The Philosophical Challenge from China and Effortless Attention: A New Perspective in the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action. He has translated several volumes in Princeton’s Illustrated Library of Chinese Classics series, most recently A Cure for Chaos, C. C. Tsai’s graphic version of selections from the Mencius. Wenwen Li is the coauthor of several Chinese-language books on the philosophy of Confucius, including Studying the Dialogues of Confucius and The Logic of the Analects.
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