Why did you choose Confucius as the starting point for your new Chair in Chinese Intellectual History ? There are at least three reasons. The first is a fact that can be observed at first glance : Confucius is the first - if not the only - name known to the general public in France, and more generally in Europe and even more widely in the West, when it comes to the Chinese tradition. This character, who lived in the 6th-5th centuries BC, and whose figure and teachings became intertwined with the entire history of imperial China from the 2nd century BC to the beginning of the 20th century, today appears, immediately and clearly, as the great founding figure of Chinese thought and culture, as much as of the entire Chinese identity. At least, this is how he is perceived in the Western world, and how he is presented, exalted and even instrumentalized in today's Chinese world. But it remains to be seen whether this identification of Confucius with the Chinese entity has always been true ; it is also necessary to question the motivations behind such identification and, finally, its historical origins.
The second reason seems just as obvious : at present, the text most often associated with the figure of Confucius - the Entretiens(Lunyu 論語), in which fragments of dialogues between the Master and his disciples or contemporaries are recorded - holds in Chinese culture, and more broadly in the surrounding cultures of East Asia, a status more or less equivalent to the Gospels in Christianized European culture, in the sense that it has become deeply rooted not only in ways of thinking, but also in language and ways of saying. As it happens, it was in giving a French translation of the Entretiens (published by Éditions du seuil in 1981) that I first became involved in Sinology. But this notoriety of Confucius and his Entretiens is at the same time a paradox, since the knowledge that the general public in the West believes it has of the character generally stops at his name (it's a Latinized name, moreover, which no doubt explains why it's easier to remember). As for what this character may have thought, said or taught, what we know about him or her quickly becomes rather vague or reductive to the point of caricature. In this respect, it is undoubtedly worth seeking to go beyond clichés and provide today's honest man with precise information.
A third reason lies in the fact that it's been a long, long time since a lecture has been devoted entirely to Confucius or the Entretiens at the Collège de France, since the creation of the first chair devoted to China in 1814, almost two centuries ago.
Confucius and his Entretiens therefore deserve to be the subject of my first lecture at the Collège de France, especially as there is currently a real need for information on this subject, at a time when we are hearing a lot about the " return of Confucius ". The title's expression " Confucius revisited " (with an Anglicism that will be justified in the lecture) might suggest that the " revisite " is a purely contemporary phenomenon. However, this is not the case : the entire Confucian character is made up of perpetual " revisites ", notably through two thousand years of continuous exegetical tradition, more active than ever today, to the point where we wonder whether it will ever be possible to find the " Confucius authentique ", or the original text of the Entretiens, even if countless attempts have been made in this direction.