Analects 11.4: 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 11.4
子曰、孝哉閔子騫、人不間於其父母昆弟之言。
The Master said, “How devoted Min Ziqian is to his parents! No one disputes what his parents and brothers say of him.”
Commentary
ethics Family testimony and public judgment The opening praises Min Ziqian’s devotion to his parents. The next clause compares what others say with the testimony of his parents and brothers. 不間 is read as finding no discrepancy or fault in that testimony: his reputation outside the family agrees with what those closest to him report.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium