Analects 14.33: 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 14.33
子曰、不逆詐、不億不信、抑亦先覺者、是賢乎。
The Master said, “Not expecting deceit, not presuming bad faith, yet being the first to notice them—is that not a worthy person?”
Commentary
translation Alertness without suspicion The first two clauses resist projecting wrongdoing in advance; the third still values early recognition. The English takes 不信 as another person’s bad faith, parallel to deception. Legge reads it passively, as not being believed oneself. The Chinese leaves the agent of that failure of trust unstated, so the comparison matters to what the person is alert for.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium