Analects 14.32: 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 14.32
子曰、不患人之不己知、患其不能也。
The Master said, “Do not worry that others do not recognize you; worry about your own lack of ability.”
Commentary
ethics Recognition and ability The opening repeats the concern of 1.16: others do not recognize you. The object of worry then changes. In 1.16 it is failure to understand others; here it is one’s own lack of ability. The recurrence holds the lack of recognition steady while redirecting attention to a different responsibility.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high