Analects 14.39: 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 14.39
子曰、賢者辟世。其次辟地。其次辟色。其次辟言。
The Master said, “The worthy withdraw from the world. Next come those who withdraw from a place; next, those who withdraw at a hostile look; next, those who withdraw at hostile words.”
Commentary
philology Four grounds for withdrawal The repeated 其次 gives an order to the four responses, which Legge’s repeated “some” leaves less visible. The scale moves from the whole world through a place to a face and then words. Hostility is inferred for the last two: the Chinese names only expression and speech. The sequence can suggest how early a person perceives grounds to leave.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium