Confucius builds twenty short books out of a small number of loaded words. Each term below gives the Chinese, its reading, the sense it carries in the text, the English James Legge settled on in 1861, and the books where it does its work.
The word the Analects circles without ever defining. Confucius gives a different answer to each disciple who asks, and always in terms of what a person does rather than what a person feels. It is the most frequent ethical term in the book.
Originally "the son of a lord", a matter of birth. Confucius turns it into a matter of character: the man who has cultivated himself. It appears in every one of the twenty books, always set against the small man.
Not etiquette for its own sake. The ceremonies, and the attitude they train: deference, restraint, the acknowledgment of what is owed. Confucius holds that a man without benevolence cannot make the rites mean anything (3.3).
The root the book starts from: a man who cannot serve his parents is not expected to serve anything else. Confucius keeps widening it — supporting a parent is not enough, since dogs and horses are fed too; what distinguishes it is reverence (2.7).
Standing by what one has said. One of the three things Tseng Tsan examines himself on daily (1.4), and, with reverence and economy, one of the things that lets a small state be governed (1.5).
The fitting thing to do, given who you are and what the situation asks. Legge renders it "what is right", which is close to the plain sense: not a rule, but the thing that is due.
Not political allegiance. Tseng Tsan defines it in 4.15 as doing one's utmost for others — the whole of the Master's way being loyalty and reciprocity together.
The one word Confucius names when asked for a rule to last a lifetime: what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others (15.24). Legge prints it in capitals. It occurs only twice in the book, and carries the whole ethic.
The first word of the book. Not book-knowledge: the word's older sense is a bird rehearsing flight, and Confucius uses it for practice repeated until it becomes one's own.
The force a person carries by being what he is. A ruler who governs by it is compared to the pole star, which stays put while the other stars turn around it (2.1).
Here it is almost always "the way" in the sense of a teaching or a practice — the way a man walks, not the metaphysical Dao of Laozi. Confucius says his way is one thing, threaded together (4.15).
The counterweight to the gentleman, and just as frequent: the man who measures by advantage and comfort. Confucius uses the pair to make a contrast, not a social class.
A man trained to serve, expected to hold to what is right even when it costs him. "A scholar whose mind is set on truth, and who is ashamed of bad clothes and bad food, is not fit to be discoursed with" (4.9).
Not boldness on its own. In 2.24 courage is what makes a man act on what he sees to be right — seeing it and doing nothing is "want of courage".
The difference between service and mere service: what a son owes a parent beyond feeding him (2.7). Also the attitude owed to the dead and to superiors.
In 1.12 it is the natural ease that makes the rites work — prized, but not at the cost of the rites themselves.
What a man is made of, as against what he has acquired. In 6.18 "the solid qualities" are set against "accomplishments", and the gentleman needs both in balance.
The acquired half of a man: learning, manners, the arts. 6.18 says a gentleman is one in whom the solid qualities and the accomplishments are equally blended.
The highest standard Confucius names, and the rarest: "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Constant Mean! Rare for a long time has been its practise among the people" (6.29). A whole later book is built on the phrase.
Not a personal god. The order of things, and the source of what a man cannot argue with. At fifty, Confucius says, he knew the decree of Heaven (2.4).