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Primary sourceBook1900

The Wisdom of Confucius

Confucius; Epiphanius Wilson · 1900

A 1900 anthology of Confucius's sayings with a biographical sketch by Epiphanius Wilson, drawn from traditional Confucian texts.

This 1900 anthology presents Confucius's own sayings, placing him as the original author whose words are collected and explained.

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The Wisdom of ConfuciusPDF · 264 pages
The Wisdom of Confucius, with biographical sketch by Epiphanius Wilson, 1900. Internet Archive scan.

About this source

What it is

This is a printed book from 1900 called The Wisdom of Confucius, part of a popular classics series. It gathers sayings attributed to Confucius along with a critical and biographical sketch written by Epiphanius Wilson. The scanned copy comes from an Internet Archive digitisation of a library book.

Why it matters

Books like this introduced Confucius's teachings to Western readers long after his lifetime, showing how his ideas about learning, government, and good character kept being reprinted and reinterpreted for new audiences. It reveals how publishers packaged ancient wisdom for a popular market.

Look closer

  • Why might a publisher in 1900 want to produce a book of Confucius's sayings for Western readers?
  • What does the biographical sketch add that the sayings alone do not?
  • How might translation and selection change the meaning of ancient sayings?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Confucius on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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