Analects 11.16: 先進 (Xian Jin)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 11 studies the people around the Master through remembered companionship, distinct abilities, rebukes, and grief. The death of Yan Yuan brings intense mourning beside disputes over what a fitting burial requires. Other exchanges test how to judge character, when to act, and what limits service to a ruler must keep. The same advice cannot serve every temperament: one student needs encouragement, another restraint. In the long final conversation, four wishes reveal different ways of imagining a life. The Master’s approval of Dian’s spring outing remains beside his judgment that governing requires ritual and a willingness to yield.
Analects 11.16
李氏富於周公、而求也為之聚斂而附益之。子曰、非吾徒也、小子、鳴鼓而攻之可也。
The Ji family was wealthier than the Duke of Zhou, yet Qiu collected levies for them and increased their wealth further. The Master said, “He is no student of mine! My students, you may beat the drum and attack him!”
Commentary
politics Collecting wealth for the already wealthy The comparison with the Duke of Zhou makes the family’s existing wealth the premise of the criticism. Qiu still adds to it through collections. The Master repudiates him as a student and permits an attack announced by drums. The martial language makes the response public and forceful; the saying leaves its precise form unstated.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
source variant The Ji family and Qiu The printed 李氏 is 季氏 in the Chinese comparison witness; Legge likewise names the Chi family. The English follows the Ji reading without changing the Chinese. Qiu here is 求, identified as 冉求 in the later ministerial exchange, not 丘, the name the Master uses for himself.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: high