Analects 14.1: 憲問 (Xian Wen)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 14 tests ethical judgment in public life. Salary, courage, accomplished speech, and a reputation for virtue each prove incomplete measures of a person. The arguments about Guan Zhong ask how benefits to many people should weigh against a demand for personal fidelity. Accounts of officeholders, messengers, and failed appeals make responsibility concrete: competent service can sustain a flawed ruler, and a duty to speak can survive refusal. Short sayings turn from judging others toward learning, ability, and the relation between words and deeds. The later encounters press the choice between persistence and withdrawal when others offer no recognition. The dialogue with Zilu gives self-cultivation an expanding aim, ending in peace for all the people; the closing scenes test conduct through bodily bearing and the desire to seem grown before the work is done.
Analects 14.1
憲問恥。子曰、邦有道穀、邦無道穀、恥也。
Xian asked about shame. The Master said, “When the state has the Way, accept a salary; when it lacks the Way, accepting a salary is shameful.”
Commentary
translation When a salary becomes shameful Xian asks what gives grounds for shame. 穀, grain, stands here for the support received in office. The English reads the two political conditions as a contrast: accept support under the Way, but be ashamed to receive it without the Way. Legge instead supplies an exclusive concern with salary in both conditions. The compressed Chinese allows that broader rebuke of a career governed by pay alone.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium