Analects 12.16: 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 12.16
子曰、君子成人之美、不成人之惡、小人反是。
The Master said, “An exemplary person helps others accomplish what is good, and does not help them accomplish what is bad. A petty person does the reverse.”
Commentary
ethics What one helps another person accomplish 成 concerns bringing something to completion. The exemplary person’s relation to others is active: helping the good reach its outcome and withholding that help from the bad. The petty person reverses both commitments. The contrast asks what another person’s influence actually brings about, beyond whether the company is agreeable.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high