"ENDEAVOR TO IMITATE THE WISE": ELUSIVE TRUE FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF CONFUCIUS, 1691

CONFUCIUS. The Morals of Confucius, a Chinese Philosopher… London: for Randal Taylor, 1691. Small octavo, later mottled calf preserving original endpapers, dark red morocco spine label, raised bands. $15,000.

Scarce true first edition in English of any of Confucius' writings, in a handsome mottled calf binding.

The fifth-century BCE Chinese sage K'ung Fu-tzu is remembered and revered "by many as the great moral teacher of East Asia… In an age when only aristocrats had access to formal education, he was the first to make it available to a wider circle, without regard to social origin. Above all, he was interested in the difficult art of becoming a perfectly humane person, and regarded those who made efforts in that direction as the real gentleman, rather than those born of high rank" (Bowker, 233). "Confucius finds himself in an age in which values are out of joint. Actions and behavior no longer correspond to the labels originally attached to them. 'Rulers do not rule and subjects do not serve,' he observes… Moral education is important to Confucius because it is the means by which one can rectify this situation and restore meaning to language and value to society" (Riegel, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Confucian philosophy dominated Chinese intellectual and ethical life until the early 20th century. This work includes a treatment of Confucian morality and 80 moral maxims drawn from the Analects. This edition differs from the otherwise almost identical (and identically dated) 1780 reprint in its collation. The text derives from Prospero Intorcetta and Philippe Couplet's Latin translation of Confucius, which was published in 1689 or 1690 (Pattberg, 72). Wing C5806. Lowndes, 510. Early inked inscription on front free endpaper: "Ex Libris M. Riego."

Title page with two small paper repairs, one affecting a few letters; final leaf with outer margin reinforced. Pages toned; binding handsome and virtually unworn. Quite rare.