Analects 14.36: 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 14.36
或曰、以德報怨、何如。子曰、何以報德。以直報怨、以德報德。
Someone said, “What would you say to repaying injury with kindness?” The Master said, “Then how would you repay kindness? Repay injury with uprightness, and kindness with kindness.”
Commentary
translation Uprightness and kindness 德 means kindness in this exchange, something received and returned. 直 is uprightness: an answer to injury that remains straight or fair. Legge calls that answer justice. The English keeps the connection with upright conduct elsewhere in the book while preserving the distinction between responding to harm and acknowledging kindness. The words do not prescribe a particular punishment.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium