Analects 12.11: 顏淵 (Yan Yuan)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 12 asks how humaneness takes shape in conduct: self-mastery and ritual, care toward others, and words answerable to action. Its political exchanges test government through trust, the people’s livelihood, and the example of those who lead. Questions about clear sight and genuine accomplishment make understanding people more demanding than knowing their reputation. The account of promoting the upright brings that judgment into public service, while Zixia’s examples place the distancing of the inhumane beside the claim of reform. The closing sayings return to friendship as a practice of advice, restraint, learning, and support for humaneness.
Analects 12.11
齊景公問政於孔子。孔子對曰、君君、臣臣、父父、子子。公曰、善哉、信如君不君、臣不臣、父不父、子不子、雖有粟、吾得而食諸。
Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied, “Let the ruler be a ruler, the minister a minister, the father a father, and the son a son.” The duke said, “Well said! If indeed the ruler is no ruler, the minister no minister, the father no father, and the son no son, even if there were grain, would I get to eat it?”
Commentary
politics A name becomes a task 君君 and the three matching pairs make each role answerable to its own name: a ruler must act as a ruler, and so with minister, father, and son. The duke repeats all four pairs negatively, then asks about eating his grain. His response joins the order of relationships to whether material resources can actually sustain him. The Chinese names grain, 粟, at the end.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high