Analects 13.20: 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 13.20
子貢問曰、何如斯可謂之士矣。子曰、行己有恥、使於四方、不辱君命、可謂士矣。曰、敢問其次。曰、宗族稱孝焉、鄉黨稱弟焉。曰、敢問其次。曰、言必信、行必果、硜硜然、小人哉、抑亦可以為次矣。曰、今之從政者何如。子曰、噫、斗筲之人、何足算也。
Zigong asked, “What must someone be like to be called a person of service?” The Master said, “Someone who has a sense of shame in their own conduct and, when sent on a mission abroad, does not disgrace their ruler’s commission may be called a person of service.” “May I ask about the next rank?” “Someone whose clan praises their devotion to parents and whose community praises their respect for elders.” “May I ask about the next rank?” “Someone determined to keep every word and carry every action through: obstinate, a petty person! Still, they may count as the next rank.” “What about those in government today?” The Master said, “Ah, people with the capacity of a grain measure or a basket! How could they count?”
Commentary
politics Ranks of service Zigong asks about 士, rendered here as a “person of service.” The answer gives the term a public setting through a ruler’s commission abroad, then descends to family and community esteem and finally to rigid reliability. These are successive standards, not three interchangeable definitions. The same opening question returns with Zilu in 13.28.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
ethics Reliability can become rigidity 言必信 and 行必果 insist on keeping words and carrying actions through. The repeated 必 makes that insistence unqualified, while 硜硜 and 小人 give it a narrow, obstinate force. The placement in a lower rank shows that reliability alone falls short of the judgment needed for the higher responsibility.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
philology Small containers and small capacity 斗 and 筲 are a grain measure and a basket. Turning them into a description of people makes their limited capacity an insult. The final question denies the current officeholders even a place in the ranking; the English keeps the concrete containers without supplying an exact volume.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high