《论语》篇序传

Annotation on the Order of the Book Titles in Analects

读诵和研究《论语》的人通常认为《论语》每一篇的篇名是随机截取的,各篇之间没有内在逻辑联系,每一篇中的各章也是随意罗列的。作者通过多年的研究发现:每一篇的篇名其实是精心挑选的,它形象地表达出该篇的主题;各篇之间存在着严密的因果逻辑联系;每一篇中的各章都是围绕主题而采撷编排的。一言以蔽之,《论语》乃编撰者精心构划之作。

Readers and students of Analects tend to think very often than not that the title of each book is randomly chosen without inherently logical relationship among one another, and that each chapter, arranged casually. The author of the present paper has, after many years' study, found that the title of each book is actually chosen with extreme care, extruding figuratively its own theme, that there exists a rigorous cause - and - effect logical relationship among them, and that all the different chapters in a book are all selected and laid out focusing on its theme. In a word, Analects is the product of the compiler with an elaborate design in mind.