Analects 14.20: 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 14.20
子言衛靈公之無道也、康子曰、夫如是、奚而不喪。孔子曰、仲叔圉治賓客、祝鮀治宗廟、王孫賈治軍旅、夫如是、奚其喪。
The Master spoke of Duke Ling of Wei’s lack of the Way. Kangzi said, “If he is like that, how has he not lost his state?” Confucius said, “Zhongshu Yu attends to visiting guests, the invocator Tuo attends to the ancestral temple, and Wangsun Jia attends to the army. With things like that, how could he lose it?”
Commentary
politics A ruler depends on other people’s competence Kangzi assumes that a ruler lacking the Way must lose his state. Confucius names three people doing essential work in diplomacy, ritual, and military affairs. The answer separates the ruler’s character from the practical supports of his rule. Tuo’s title 祝, rendered “invocator,” identifies a ritual speaker; his assigned sphere here is the ancestral temple.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high