Analects 12.2: 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 12.2
仲弓問仁。子曰、出門如見大賓、使民如承大祭、己所不欲、勿施於人、在邦無怨、在家無怨。仲弓曰、雍雖不敏、請事斯語矣。
Zhonggong asked about humaneness. The Master said, “When you go out, act as though meeting an honored guest. When you call on the people to serve, act as though assisting at a great sacrifice. Do not impose on others what you do not want yourself. In the state, cause no resentment; in the household, cause no resentment.” Zhonggong said, “Though I am slow to learn, let me put these words into practice.”
Commentary
ritual The guest, the sacrifice, and other people The answer to Zhonggong moves from receiving a guest to directing the people, giving both encounters the care of ritual. The instruction about what one does not want turns attention toward the person affected by one’s conduct. Zhonggong then repeats Yan Yuan’s promise to practice; 雍, Yong, is his first-person self-reference. The two replies connect different answers to the same willingness to begin.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
translation Whose resentment? 無怨 leaves the bearer of resentment unstated. “Cause no resentment” follows Legge in taking it as resentment directed against the person addressed. “Feel no resentment” is also possible. 邦 and 家 extend the instruction across state and household; in this political setting, the household may be a ruling house rather than only a private home.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium