Analects, Books Fifteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen

Passage15:1 makes me believe that Confucius was a pacifist, which hadn't been seen or adressed in the previous books.

Passage 15:28 really made me think, because one can get very easily caught out in herd mentality and mob psychology. Often people make up ntheir minds about others based on gossip and the opinions of others, rather than their own, which is what this passage urges one to do.

I really liked passage 15:30 because it teaches people to learn from their mistakes, rathe rthan keep on making them, which people do often, even if they know they should not. The idea of changing according to experience is revisited in passage 17:3.

I dislike the fact that 17:25 treats women as a separate entity from humans or the rest of the race, as if they are common and unworthy as men are, which gives a lot of insight into Confucian China.