Analects 12.7: 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 12.7
子貢問政。子曰足食、足兵、民信之矣。子貢曰、必不得已而去、於斯三者何先。曰、去兵。子貢曰、必不得已而去、於斯二者何先。曰、去食、自古皆有死、民無信不立。
Zigong asked about government. The Master said, “Enough food, enough arms, and the people’s trust.” Zigong said, “If you had no choice but to give up one of these three, which would go first?” “Give up the arms.” Zigong said, “If you had no choice but to give up one of the remaining two, which would go first?” “Give up the food. Since ancient times, everyone has died. Without trust, the people cannot stand.”
Commentary
politics Trust under forced choices Zigong twice makes the choice unavoidable before asking what can be surrendered. Food and arms first appear as real requirements of government; the sequence then places trust above both in the hardest case. The sentence about death gives that priority its severe cost. The answer concerns what sustains political life when goods can no longer all be secured.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
translation Who cannot stand? The closing 民無信不立 can be read with the people as the subject: without trust they cannot stand. Legge supplies the state as what loses its standing. The English keeps “the people,” the subject actually named, while the opening question about government gives their standing a political scope. 信 here concerns the trust people place in those who govern them.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium