Which text is the main collection of sayings attributed to Confucius?

The Analects is the main collection of sayings and conversations attributed to Confucius.

Known in Chinese as the Lunyu, the work presents brief exchanges involving Confucius, his students, and other figures. It emphasizes moral cultivation, appropriate conduct, filial respect, learning, ritual, and humane behavior. The text does not read like a continuous biography or a systematic philosophical treatise.

The Analects was compiled over time by followers and later editors rather than written by Confucius as a single finished book. Its chapters vary in style and length, and scholars debate the dating of individual layers. Even so, it became the central textual source for Confucian teaching.

The Analects is often confused with the Tao Te Ching, which is associated with Laozi and Taoism, and with the Mencius, a later Confucian work named for the philosopher Mencius. The Analects formed part of the Confucian canon used in education and civil-service examination culture for centuries.