Analects 14.17: 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 14.17
子路曰、桓公殺公子糾、召忽死之、管仲不死、曰、未仁乎。子曰、桓公九合諸侯、不以兵車、管仲之力也、如其仁、如其仁。
Zilu said, “Duke Huan killed Prince Jiu. Shao Hu died for him, but Guan Zhong did not. Did he not fall short of humaneness?” The Master said, “Duke Huan brought the lords together nine times without war chariots. That was Guan Zhong’s achievement. Who could match his humaneness? Who could match his humaneness?”
Commentary
translation Humaneness measured by public effects Zilu measures Guan Zhong by his failure to die for the killed prince; the Master answers with assemblies achieved without war chariots. The English retains the numeral 九, nine, which Legge’s account leaves uncounted. It follows his interrogative reading of 如其仁 as praise beyond comparison; the repetition can also carry the exclamatory force “Such humaneness!”
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium