Analects 12.4: 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 12.4
司馬牛問君子。子曰、君子不憂不懼。曰、不憂不懼、斯謂之君子矣乎。子曰、內省不疚、夫何憂何懼。
Sima Niu asked about the exemplary person. The Master said, “An exemplary person is free from worry and fear.” “Free from worry and fear—is that what you call an exemplary person?” The Master said, “If you look within and find nothing to reproach, what is there to worry about or fear?”
Commentary
ethics Looking within before being at ease Sima Niu again repeats a brief answer and asks whether it is sufficient. The reply supplies its condition: inward examination finds nothing to reproach. Freedom from worry and fear follows that examination. The next section lets Sima Niu voice a worry of his own, keeping the claim within an ongoing exchange.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high