Analects 10.12: 鄉黨 (Xiang Dang)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 10 presents Confucius through the details of his conduct: how he speaks among neighbors and officials, receives guests, moves through a ruler’s court, dresses, prepares for ritual, and eats. Clothing, gesture, pace, and expression change with the occasion. The later scenes include gifts, illness, a fire, a friend’s death, and encounters calling for respect. Ease at home and readiness to respond both belong to the portrait. The final, difficult scene turns to a pheasant’s flight and a repeated praise of timeliness.
Analects 10.12
廄焚、子退朝、曰、傷人乎、不問馬。
The stables burned. Returning from court, the Master asked, “Was anyone hurt?” He did not ask about the horses.
Commentary
ethics The question after the fire The question asks about injured people. The narrator immediately records the question he did not ask, about the horses. That contrast directs attention to human injury at the moment of return. The passage leaves the extent of the damage and the answer to his question unstated.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high