Analects 14.29: 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 14.29
子曰、君子恥其言而過其行。
The Master said, “An exemplary person is ashamed when their words outstrip their actions.”
Commentary
translation Which side exceeds the other? The English reads 其言而過其行 as the condition that causes shame: words exceeding deeds. Legge instead makes the person restrained in speech and abundant in action. That reading distributes the clauses differently. Both connect speech and action, but the present translation makes the excess itself the object of shame, echoing 14.21.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium