Analects 11.17: 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 11.17
柴也愚。參也魯。師也辟。由也喭。
Chai is simple-minded. Shen is dull. Shi is affected. As for You, he is coarse.
Commentary
translation Four compressed judgments The four clauses give traits without incidents or explanation. 愚 and 魯 distinguish simplicity or foolishness from dullness; 喭 gives You a rough manner. 辟 is less secure: “affected” takes it as behavior departing from plain sincerity, near Legge’s description of Shi as specious. A reading that stresses one-sidedness or excess would put more weight on deviation.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium