Analects 11.18: 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 11.18
子曰、回也奇庶乎屢空。賜不受命、而貨殖焉、億則屢中。
The Master said, “Hui is almost there, isn’t he? Yet he is often in want. Ci does not accept his lot, but increases his wealth; his estimates often hit the mark.”
Commentary
source variant The particle before “almost” The printed Chinese has 奇 in 回也奇庶乎. The comparison witness reads 其, giving the reflective force carried here by “isn’t he?” Legge likewise understands Hui as close to an attainment. The English follows that reading while the displayed 奇 remains unchanged.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: high
translation Attainment and material success 庶 says “close” without stating the goal; Legge supplies perfect virtue. The English leaves the goal implicit. The contrast with Ci’s wealth supports taking 屢空 as repeated material want and 命 as one’s allotted lot. 命 can also mean a command; the wealth contrast favors the lot reading here. Legge explicitly names Heaven, which the Chinese does not. “Estimates” reads 億 alongside wealth-making, while retaining the concession that Ci often judges correctly.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium