Analects 13.12: 子路 (Zi Lu)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 13 asks what makes government effective and what qualifies someone to serve. Leading by example, appointing capable people, setting names right, creating prosperity, and teaching all place demands on the ruler. Short claims about conduct stand beside long exchanges about speech, judgment, and the time needed for change. The book also tests uprightness, reputation, reliability, and harmony through particular relationships, sometimes leaving a difficult tension visible, as when family concealment is praised. Its closing sayings make preparation for war a responsibility toward the people who must fight.
Analects 13.12
子曰、如有王者、必世而後仁。
The Master said, “Even if a true king arose, it would take a generation before humaneness prevailed.”
Commentary
politics Even a true king needs time 王者 names a king in the full sense, which the English makes explicit with “true.” Even such a ruler is followed by 世, a generation, before 仁 takes hold. Rendering 仁 as humaneness preserves the ethical term and the contrast with the shorter administrative results in 13.10. The saying leaves the precise number of years unstated.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium