Analects 14.41: 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 14.41
子路宿於石門、晨門曰、奚自。子路曰、自孔氏。曰、是知其不可而為之者與。
Zilu spent the night at the Stone Gate. The gatekeeper asked, “Where have you come from?” Zilu said, “From Master Kong.” “Isn’t he the one who knows it cannot be done and does it anyway?”
Commentary
ethics Persistence seen from the gate The gatekeeper identifies Confucius by the tension between knowing that something cannot be done and continuing to do it. Zilu supplies only the name of the person he comes from. The stranger’s question can sound admiring or dismissive; the passage records the description without resolving that tone.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium