Xue Er


Xue Er is the first book of the Analects of Confucius. According to Zhu Xi, a Confucian philosopher in the 12th century, the book Xue Er is the base of moral improvement because it touches upon the basic principles of being a "gentleman".

Name

Xué Ér consist of two separate Chinese characters. The first character Xué denotes "to learn" as a verb or "the research of something" as a noun. The following character Ér signifies a conjunction between two actions.
The titles of the Analects of Confucius are usually related to the first phrase of a given book. Likewise, the book Xue Er's initial sentence in Classical Chinese starts with "Xue Er":
：,？
The Master said, "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?
Note that although the English translation used only one verb "to learn", In the Classical Chinese text, there are two verbs: 學 and 習.

Content

's commentary of the Analects Lunyu Zhengyi listed several key words of the book Xue Er. The key words include: Gentleman, filial piety, humaneness, doing one's best, trust, the foundation of a nation and the principles of an appropriate friendship.
In the book, Confucius opted for hospitality towards strangers and tolerance of ignorance. Confucius also emphasized on the importance of self introspection.