While Confucius is best known as a philosopher, his works reveal that he based his teachings on a sharp understanding of psychology. A summary of the steps to self-cultivation, as well as a

"map" of the psyche is included In a manual written by one of his disciples. At the age of seventy, two years before he died, Confucius wrote a 38-word sketch of his own life, in which he told only about his self-development. This pithy biography illustrates the steps in psychological growth outlined in the manual and the "rewards" of continual adult maturation.

This book uses the lens of several contemporary Western psychologists to discuss Confucius' perspective on his own life as development along the stations in the map of the psyche.