Professor Hans van Ess (Vice President, Department für Asienstudien, Institut für Sinologie, LMU München)

Abstract: In the sixth chapter of the Lunyu Confucius talks about his students. It is not always easy to understand what he actually has to say about them. Moreover, sometimes he seems to contradict himself as far as other statements on the same students are concerned. Interestingly, in the 67th chapter of the Shiji, the “Zhongni dizi liezhuan” 仲尼弟子列傳, do we find many of the sayings of Lunyu 6 again, albeit sometimes in a slightly altered form. Why the text actually differs in these two sources is a question that has rarely been discussed in previous scholarship. A look at other texts which talk about the achievements of the students of Confucius may be helpful when trying to offer a solution to this problem. At the same time, it would seem important to also consider other chapters in the Lunyu in which Confucius judges on his disciples. They, too, may shed light on the hidden conflicts that apparently existed between what otherwise sometimes looks like a homogeneous group.