Analects 12.8: 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 12.8
棘子成曰、君子質而已矣、何以文為。子貢曰、惜乎夫子之說、君子也、駟不及舌。文猶質也、質猶文也、虎豹之(kuo4,革+享、與鞹同)、猶犬羊之(kuo4,革+享、與鞹同)。
Ji Zicheng said, “An exemplary person needs only substance. What use is refinement?” Zigong said, “What a pity you should say that, sir, exemplary person that you are! A team of four horses cannot catch the tongue. Refinement is like substance; substance is like refinement. The hide of a tiger or leopard, stripped of its hair, is like the hide of a dog or sheep, stripped of its hair.”
Commentary
philology Substance and refinement Ji Zicheng treats 質, substance, as sufficient and 文, refinement, as dispensable. Zigong reverses the terms in a balanced reply and then compares animal hides. The distinctive surface helps make the animal recognizable; removing it makes unlike animals seem alike. The image gives refinement a role in what something is, while the balanced wording refuses to discard substance.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
translation A tongue faster than four horses 君子也 can attach to the man addressed or to what he has said about the exemplary person. The English takes it as a description of Ji Zicheng that sharpens the rebuke, while Legge more expressly makes the words show their speaker to be a superior man. The team of four horses gives the rebuke urgency: speech has already escaped even the fastest pursuit.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
source variant The described character for a hide The Chinese twice supplies a description in place of a character: 革 joined to 享, pronounced kuo4 and identified there with 鞹. This means a hide stripped of its hair; Legge renders both occurrences in that sense. The English repeats the stripping for both pairs of animals, preserving the repeated character’s role in the comparison. The displayed Chinese keeps both descriptions.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium