Analects 14.26: 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 14.26
蘧伯玉使人於孔子。孔子與之坐、而問焉、曰、夫子何為。對曰、夫子欲寡其過、而未能也、使者出、子曰、使乎、使乎。
Qu Boyu sent a messenger to Confucius. Confucius sat with him and asked, “What is your master doing?” He replied, “My master wants to reduce his faults but has not yet managed it.” When the messenger left, the Master said, “What a messenger! What a messenger!”
Commentary
ethics A report that keeps the work unfinished Qu Boyu’s messenger names an aim and acknowledges failure to reach it. His account presents his master through continuing attention to faults, without claiming that he has become faultless. The Master’s repeated praise falls on the messenger who can represent that effort so aptly.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium