{"id":17,"date":"2025-02-24T04:37:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T04:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midterm.caoh.sites.carleton.edu\/midterm\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2025-02-24T10:36:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T10:36:06","slug":"textual-analysis-project-the-analects-of-confucius","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/midterm.caoh.sites.carleton.edu\/midterm\/textual-analysis-project-the-analects-of-confucius\/","title":{"rendered":"Textual Analysis Project: The Analects of Confucius"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Aim)<\/em>
For my digital humanities project, I textually analyzed The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics)<\/em> from Project Gutenberg with the aim of uncovering recurring linguistic and thematic patterns that reveal how Confucian thought interweaves personal morality with societal order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Methods)<\/em>
I used a cleaned version of the text file\u2014removing all metadata, licensing information, and extraneous notes\u2014to focus solely on the pure content, and then applied Voyant Tools to generate word clouds, frequency lists, and trend charts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Key Results)<\/em>
The analysis revealed synchronous peaks among key terms\u2014such as virtue, superior, good, propriety, and great, along with government and people\u2014which highlights the interplay of individual and collective ethics throughout the text. While these quantitative findings offer a valuable snapshot, they also suggest that deeper historical and philosophical context, including the roles of governance and the collective ethos, is necessary for full interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also important to note that some terms exhibit nuances lost in translation. For instance, the concept of \u201cchapter\u201d in ancient Chinese texts differs from its modern English interpretation (with \u201cchap\u201d representing shorter sections rather than full chapters), and while \u201cpropriety\u201d is neutral in contemporary English, in ancient Chinese culture it is a profoundly positive term. These distinctions underscore the challenges of situating translated classical texts in their proper context.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Analects-Confucius-ebook\/dp\/B01LZY0GQ1<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sources<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Dataset Used)<\/em>
I used the text file \u201cThe Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics)<\/a>\u201d from Project Gutenberg. This document contains 29,570 total words and 3,143 unique word forms (according to Voyant Tools<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dataset originates from a classical work that has been translated across cultures and time, making it an exemplary subject for cross-cultural and cross-temporal studies. As a record primarily composed of dialogues\u2014where Confucius\u2019s disciples meticulously recorded his statements\u2014the text is formatted into 499 chapters, each representing a distinct segment of conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Cleaning & Formatting)<\/em>
For the purpose of my analysis, all metadata, license information, and other extraneous notes were removed so that only the pure content remains. This cleaning process ensured that the textual data reflects only the authentic philosophical content, while the preserved chapter divisions maintain the structural integrity of the original work. The clean text file is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/global.chinadaily.com.cn\/a\/202309\/27\/WS6513eeaba310d2dce4bb8309_3.html<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Process<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Digital Humanities Methods)<\/em>
After cleaning the text, I uploaded the pure content to Voyant Tools<\/a> to perform quantitative analysis. I began by examining the automatically generated word cloud and word frequency list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Steps Taken for Analysis)<\/em>
The top 25 words included: said (622), master (521), chap (498), man (232), tsze (186), virtue (107), asked (101), superior (94), people (93), men (90), kung (80), yu (78), confucius (76), lu (69), replied (54), government (54), good (53), things (52), propriety (52), great (51), saying (48), words (46), way (43), prince (41), know (41).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given The Analects<\/em>\u2019 dialogic format (\u201cThe Master said\u2026\u201d), it is unsurprising that \u201csaid,\u201d \u201cmaster,\u201d and various transliterated names (e.g., \u201ctsze,\u201d \u201ckung,\u201d \u201cyu\u201d) dominate the list. Notably, \u201cchap\u201d (498) references the way the text is segmented\u2014there are actually 499 instances of \u201cchapter,\u201d but the first occurrence is written in full as \u201cchapter,\u201d hence the count discrepancy. This reflects a subtle difference in textual structure, as these divisions may represent short passages rather than modern full-length chapters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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