Analects 13.5: 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 13.5
子曰、誦詩三百、授之以政、不達、使於四方、不能專對、雖多、亦奚以為。
The Master said, “Someone can recite the three hundred Poems, yet cannot cope when entrusted with government and cannot answer on their own when sent on a mission abroad. However much they have recited, what use is it?”
Commentary
ethics Recitation tested in action The Poems are tested by two kinds of responsibility: managing public affairs and replying independently on a mission. 專對 places weight on answering for oneself when a prepared formula or another speaker cannot do the work. The closing question measures abundant recitation by what it enables its learner to do.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high