Confucius was a legendary philosopher and theorist of government. Contemporaneous with Sun Tzu, he was active in the sixth and fifth centries, BCE. Though he was largely ineffective during his own career, his approach to leadership as a highly conservative morality and study of the classics has influenced bureaucratic rule in China to this day.
"The Analects", literally "Edited Conversations", is a collection of aphorisms and brief conversations attributed to Confucius, but most likely not written during his lifetime. The standard translations of this work are usually stuffed with additional commentary, and difficult to follow. This new modern edition includes the clearest aphorisms and fragments, and a new introductory essay.