Analects 1.5: 學而 (Xue Er)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 1 presents learning as a way of acting with others: practicing what one learns, serving parents, keeping faith with friends, governing with care, and accepting correction. Its voices return to the relation between inward character and outward conduct. Devotion to parents and respect for elder brothers are called the root of practicing humaneness; ritual gives harmony its measure. The dialogue about poverty, wealth, and poetry shows a learner carrying a lesson further. The book begins with bearing a lack of recognition and ends by asking whether we know other people.
Analects 1.5
子曰、道千乘之國、敬事而信、節用而愛人、使民以時。
The Master said, “To govern a state of a thousand chariots: be conscientious in its affairs and trustworthy; be sparing in expenditure and care for people; call on the people to serve at the proper times.”
Commentary
politics Governing by care and timing A state is introduced through its thousand chariots, but the instructions concern care, trustworthiness, restrained spending, and the timing of demands on the people. “At the proper times” makes timing part of good rule. 道 is a verb here, to govern or guide, rather than the ethical noun “Way.”
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high