The Analects: A Contemporary Translation, Confucius trans. Erin Cline, Liveright, 240 pp., $24.99, February 2026

Save for Mao Zedong, there may be no more famous Chinese figures than Confucius, who is believed to have lived from 551 to 479 B.C. Acclaim started early: Soon after Confucius’ death, all sorts of sayings were attributed to him, often collected in writing. Of these collections, the Analects became the most important, emerging between the 2nd and 1st century B.C.

The Analects: A Contemporary Translation, Confucius trans. Erin Cline, Liveright, 240 pp., $24.99, February 2026

The Analects: A Contemporary Translation, Confucius trans. Erin Cline, Liveright, 240 pp., $24.99, February 2026

Save for Mao Zedong, there may be no more famous Chinese figures than Confucius, who is believed to have lived from 551 to 479 B.C. Acclaim started early: Soon after Confucius’ death, all sorts of sayings were attributed to him, often collected in writing. Of these collections, the Analects became the most important, emerging between the 2nd and 1st century B.C.

Confucius and the Analects became foundational aspects of Chinese culture, and one of the main lenses through which to understand China. Since the 1930s, Confucius has stood next to Moses on the east pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. There are now so many translations of the Analects into English alone that it has been possible to compare them through natural language processing models. Chinese President Xi Jinping and other leaders often promote the Analects, and the People’s Republic of China promotes its own worldwide Confucius Institutes for studying Chinese culture –even though it viciously attacked Confucianism for three decades after its foundation.

The Analects: A Contemporary Translation by Erin Cline, a professor at Georgetown University, is a new translation that aims, in Cline’s account, to counter inaccuracies in how the text has traditionally been read in its depictions of women. This follows her 2022 book, The Analects: A Guide, in which she corrects what she considers another problem: the lack of discussions of the Analects as a “sacred” text.

Unfortunately, both works fail to acknowledge centuries of studies that have already extensively covered these issues.

Ink portrait of King Wu of Zhou, 19th century. Wikimedia Commons

Take Analects 8.20, a passage central to Cline’s argument that the Analects is not misogynistic. Analects 8.20 references King Wu, the founder of the Zhou dynasty who was celebrated as a model ruler. Wu played a crucial role in overthrowing the previous Shang dynasty, which was also known as the Yin dynasty.

As it’s written, Analects 8.20 includes the sentence “There is a woman among [King Wu’s ministers], nine persons, and that is it.”  A previous passage refers to Wu having ten advisors. It is just as confusing in Chinese as in English, and many interpretations supposed some text was missing.  Cline takes it to show that, “[c]ontrary to what some commentators and contemporary translations have suggested, there is nothing in the original to suggest misogyny.”

To Cline, the sentence suggests simple acknowledgement of a female advisor. While some........

© Foreign Policy