Confucius is among the most admired—and most debated—figures in Chinese history. For some he epitomizes wisdom; for others, unfulfilled aspirations. Wai-yee Li introduces this polyphony through annotated translations of a variety of stories, from Confucius’s biography to a recent internet song. Students and scholars alike will enjoy this book immensely.

- Yuri Pines, author of <i>Zhou History Unearthed: The Bamboo Manuscript </i>Xinian<i> and Early Chinese Historiography</i>,

For the first time, some of the many stories about Confucius that circulated in China for thousands of years are now available to modern English readers through Wai-yee Li’s translations. With Li’s groundbreaking approach to reading these sources, even the <i>Analects</i> appears here as a more revealing and complex text than ever before.

- Thomas Wilson, author of <i>On Sacred Grounds: Culture, Society, Politics, and the Formation of the Cult of Confucius</i>,

In an era when pseudo-efficiency and a hyper-focus on fleeting impressions reign supreme, Wai-yee Li’s <i>The Confucius Chronicles</i> reminds us of the delicious pleasures to be experienced not only from “slow reading,” but also from “super-slow reading,” by which one moves from a single passage both vertically in time and horizontally across roughly contemporaneous texts, savoring associations by turns obvious and subtle. Pieties are out. Instead, we find her romp through the centuries. Meanwhile, the Kongzi of the collective imagination comes alive, as we see him by turns excoriated, admired, and co-opted by all manner of would-be claimants to the role of sage, including Han Fei and Li Zhi. This book is a triumph: a teaching text that shows how much we all have to learn!

- Michael Nylan, author of <i>The Chinese Pleasure Book</i>,