Analects 14.38: 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 14.38
公伯寮愬子路於李孫、子服景伯以告、曰、夫子固有惑志於公伯寮、吾力猶能肆諸市朝。子曰、道之將行也與、命也、道之將廢也與、命也、公伯寮其如命何。
Gongbo Liao slandered Zilu to Jisun. Zifu Jingbo reported it to Confucius, saying, “Jisun has certainly been led astray by Gongbo Liao, but I still have the power to have Liao’s corpse displayed in the marketplace and at court.” The Master said, “Whether the Way will be put into practice depends on what is decreed; whether it will be cast aside depends on what is decreed. What can Gongbo Liao do against the decree?”
Commentary
source variant Lisun in the Chinese, Jisun in the English The displayed Chinese writes 李孫, Lisun. Legge’s facing English gives Chi-sun, corresponding to 季孫, Jisun. The translation follows that name reading while retaining 李 in the Chinese. The character difference is substantive for the name; it should not be mistaken for two romanizations of the same written form.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
politics A threat cannot decide the fate of the Way Zifu Jingbo offers a deadly answer to the slander, describing the public exposure of a corpse. Confucius answers in terms of 命, what is decreed or allotted. He puts the Way’s success beyond the slanderer’s power, leaving the offered execution without endorsement. The adjacent appeal to Heaven gives this decree a wider setting, though this sentence does not name who decrees it.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium