Analects 14.46: 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 14.46
原壤夷俟、子曰、幼而不孫弟、長而無述焉、老而不死、是為賊。以杖叩其脛。
Yuan Rang waited, sitting with his legs spread. The Master said, “As a boy, you were neither deferential nor respectful to your elders. Grown up, you had nothing worth handing down. Now old, you are still not dead: you are a pest.” He struck him on the shin with his staff.
Commentary
translation A rebuke enacted bodily 夷俟 describes the posture in which Yuan Rang waits. The English reads it as sitting with the legs spread; Legge has him squatting on his heels. Both readings make bodily bearing part of the encounter. The harsh speech surveys youth, adulthood, and old age, then ends in an actual blow to the shin. The force of that rebuke is retained.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium