Analects 11.22: 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 11.22
子畏於匡、顏淵後、子曰、吾以女為死矣。曰、子在、回何敢死。
The Master was in danger at Kuang, and Yan Yuan had fallen behind. The Master said, “I thought you had died.” He replied, “While you are alive, how could I dare to die?”
Commentary
ethics A reply of attachment 子畏於匡 repeats the wording of the earlier Kuang scene and is again rendered “The Master was in danger at Kuang.” 畏 can foreground fear; “in danger” foregrounds the threatening situation. The wording here does not establish whether he was surrounded or besieged. Yan Yuan’s answer makes his life answerable to the Master’s continued presence. “How could I dare” expresses attachment and obligation in the face of the Master’s fear that he was lost.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium