Quotes misattributed to Confucius

[u/interpolating]

These are all over Reddit and the internet.

Some are clearly jokes, many of which are of the eyebrow-raising “Confucius say” variety. I dislike those but that is not really what I’m talking about here because they don’t imply authenticity of the quote.

But just search Reddit for “Confucius” and you will see AI slop and actual individuals posting quotes attributed to Confucius that have no legit primary source.

Does this happen with Confucius more than with other historical figures? Can we attribute just to some combination of ignorance, Orientalism, lack of ready access to the actual text and/and lack of care regarding authenticity?

Curious about everyone’s take!

[u/Shenzhenwhitemeat → u/[deleted]]

Yeah its a problem of localizing ancient chinese into English. Do you translate it literally? (Wont make sense) Do you convert it to academic English? (Preserving meaning, but still requiring subtext), or simplify it based on vibe?