Across the centuries that have elapsed since he lived in northern China and lectured to a small group of followers on ethics and ritual, the ideas of Confucius have had a pow- erful resonance. Soon after hisdeath in 476 B.c., a small number of these followers dedicated themselves to recording what they codd re- member of his teachings and to preserving the texts of history and poetry that he was alleged to have edited. In the fourth and third centu- ries B.c., several distinguished philosophers...