Analects 10.4: 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 10.4
入公門、鞠躬如也、如不容。立不中門、行不履閾。過位、色勃如也、足躩如也、其言似不足者。攝齊升堂、鞠躬如也、屏氣似不息者。出、降一等、逞顏色、怡怡如也、沒階、趨進、翼如也、復其位、踧踖如也。
On entering the ruler’s gate, he bent forward as though there were not room for him. He did not stand in the middle of the gateway or step on the threshold. When passing the ruler’s place, his expression grew solemn and his steps careful; his words seemed barely to come. Gathering up his robe, he climbed to the hall, bending forward and holding his breath as though not breathing. As he came out and went down one step, his expression relaxed into a cheerful ease. At the foot of the stairs, he hurried forward as though on wings. Back in his place, he was anxiously respectful again.
Commentary
ritual The audience traced in the body Gate, threshold, the ruler’s place, hall, stairs, and standing place organize the scene. His breath and expression change as he passes each point. The return of the careful steps and winglike movement from the preceding section makes this a patterned description of conduct. The brief ease on leaving belongs within that pattern.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high