Analects 13.27: 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 13.27
子曰、剛、毅、木、訥、近仁。
The Master said, “Firm, resolute, unadorned, slow to speak: these qualities are close to humaneness.”
Commentary
philology Four qualities, close to humaneness 剛 is firmness; 毅 is resolution, the determination to continue. 木 gives plainness the image of wood, rendered “unadorned”; 訥 is difficulty or slowness in speech. Keeping the four qualities distinct gives the saying more texture than a general praise of modesty. 近 marks closeness to humaneness, leaving a gap between these dispositions and humaneness itself.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high