Analects 10.5: 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 10.5
執圭、鞠躬如也、如不勝、上如揖、下如授、勃如戰色、足蹜蹜如有循。享禮、有容色。私覿、愉愉如也
Holding the jade tablet, he bent forward as though unable to bear its weight. He held it no higher than in bowing and no lower than in handing something over. His expression was tense, as if in fear; he took short, shuffling steps, as though following a track. At the ritual presentation of gifts, his expression was gracious. At the private audience he was at ease and happy.
Commentary
ritual Weight and ease The jade tablet appears almost too heavy to carry, though the sentence describes his bearing rather than weighing the object. The sequence moves from this tense responsibility to a gracious presentation of gifts and a relaxed private audience. Short, shuffling steps render 蹜蹜; “following a track” keeps the image of regulated movement in 有循.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium