SOURCE: Yearley, Lee H. “An Existentialist Reading of Book 4 of the Analects.” In Confucius and the Analects: New Essays, edited by Bryan W. Van Norden, pp. 237-74. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

In the following essay, Yearley advocates applying to the Analects the same modern scholarship methods that are used in studying the New Testament.

I. Introduction

Among the more haunting of the many haunting passages in the Analects is the one that begins “The more I strain my gaze towards it, the higher it soars. The deeper I bore down into it, the harder it becomes. I see it in front; but suddenly it is behind” (Waley 9:10). The comment describes, it could be said, not only the Confucian Way but also the figure or, better, figures of Confucius that appear in the text, as well as the text itself, or at least significant parts of it.

A...