Analects 14.19: 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 14.19
公叔文子之臣、大夫僎、與文子同升諸公。子聞之曰、可以為矣。
Zhuan, an officer who had served Gongshu Wenzi, rose to the ruler’s court alongside Wenzi. When the Master heard of it, he said, “That is worth doing.”
Commentary
source variant A terse closing phrase The Chinese here ends 可以為矣, without 文, the character in Wenzi’s name. Legge supplies an appraisal of the name Wen, meaning accomplished. “That is worth doing” reads the printed 為 as doing and retains a general approval of the action. A lost complement could account for Legge’s fuller reading, but the printed sentence alone does not establish that reconstruction.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
politics A subordinate rises alongside his superior Zhuan is first identified through service to Gongshu Wenzi and then appears beside him at the ruler’s court. The juxtaposition gives the approving response a concrete occasion: the two now stand together in public service. The sentence leaves the details of the appointment implicit.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium