Analects 14.30: 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 14.30
子曰、君子道者三、我無能焉、仁者不憂、知者不惑、勇者不懼。子貢曰、夫子自道也。
The Master said, “The Way of the exemplary person has three aspects, and I am equal to none of them: the humane are free of worry; the wise, of confusion; the courageous, of fear.” Zigong said, “The Master is describing himself.”
Commentary
ethics The Master’s disclaimer and Zigong’s answer The three clauses recur from 9.28, now with humaneness placed first. The Master denies that he meets any of the three standards; Zigong hears a portrait of the Master himself. Their different judgments let the same words function as an aspiration and as a recognition of achievement.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
translation Describing himself 自道 can make oneself the subject of a description or mark something one says oneself. Legge takes the second direction and has Zigong refer to the Master’s own saying. The English chooses the first, making Zigong challenge the disclaimer. The two readings give his reply different degrees of praise and resistance.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium