Analects 11.20: 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 11.20
子曰、論篤是與、君子者乎、色莊者乎。
The Master said, “If we approve someone for their earnest talk, are they an exemplary person, or merely solemn in appearance?”
Commentary
translation What earnest speech can prove The compressed 論篤是與 is taken as granting approval on the strength of earnest speech, also the direction of Legge’s reading. The questions then separate an exemplary person from someone whose seriousness lies in the face. The language asks how an approving judgment is made when speech and demeanor can resemble character.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium