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Title: An excellent overview of Confucius' life and philosophy
Review: Clements brings the 2,500 year-old philosopher, teacher, and statesman to life. He also provides maps and timelines to put it into perspective and make visualization easier. It's a short, easy, and enjoyable read spliced with words of wisdom from the Analects. In essence we are all here to do certain jobs and should do them to the best of our abilities and not disrupt the social order. He was very enlightened for his time in that he felt jobs should be obtained by merit and not birth. He came up with the idea of imperial exams to make accession fair. Perhaps it would be expecting too much for a philosopher who lived 2,500 years ago but, his idea of equality and a level playing field didn't extend to women. This is left out of the book. It's a well documented biography and the writing is good.
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