The Last Words of Confucius

Despite the wealth of literature about Kongzi 孔子 (Confucius) from early China, there is a curious lack of stories about Kongzi’s last words. A brief survey of last words shows that this lacuna sets Kongzi apart from various early Chinese figures as well as from culture heroes elsewhere in the ancient world who inspired similarly vibrant traditions. Moreover, extant stories set before and after Kongzi’s death explicitly reject a core function of last words in the ancient context, that of anticipating and curating a dying person’s legacy via instructions to a successor. Thus, the problem of Kongzi’s last words challenges the long-standing notion of Kongzi as the founder of a multigenerational school, one whose members recorded, composed, and transmitted his teachings for posterity.

摘要:

儘管在早期中國的研究領域，關於孔子的文獻資料十分豐富，但對孔子的臨終遺言並無明確記載。對遺言的調查研究顯示，這一空白使孔子有別於早期中國的其他人物和古代世界其他文明中的文化英雄。此外，孔子的遺言問題對孔子作為多代學派創始人的傳統觀念提出了挑戰。