Analects 14.13: 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 14.13
子路問成人。子曰、若臧武仲之知、公綽之不欲、卞莊子之勇、冉求之藝、文之以禮樂、亦可以為成人矣。曰、今之成人者、何必然、見利思義、見危授命、久要不忘平生之言、亦可以為成人矣。
Zilu asked about a fully formed person. The Master said, “Someone with Zang Wuzhong’s wisdom, Gongchuo’s freedom from desire, Bian Zhuangzi’s courage, and Ran Qiu’s skills, refined through ritual and music, could be considered fully formed.” He went on, “But must a fully formed person today be like that? Someone who thinks of what is right when faced with gain, gives their life when faced with danger, and does not forget the words of an old pledge could also be considered fully formed.”
Commentary
ethics Two accounts of being fully formed Zilu asks about 成人, a person brought to completion. The first answer combines four people’s strengths and the refinement of ritual and music. The second gives three practical tests: gain, danger, and fidelity over time. The bare 曰 introducing the second answer does not name its speaker; the English takes it as the Master continuing his response.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
translation A pledge remembered over time The English joins 久要 to the remembered words as a longstanding pledge, close to Legge’s reading of an old agreement. Another possible construction takes 要 as constrained circumstances: through long hardship, one does not forget earlier words. Either construction tests the durability of a commitment, but they give time and hardship different roles.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
philology Which Qiu? Ran Qiu is written 冉求 in the list of skills. Later, Weisheng Mu addresses Confucius as Qiu, 丘. The identical English spelling represents different Chinese names; the dialogue itself identifies the second addressee.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high