Analects 14.7: 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 14.7
子曰、君子而不仁者有矣夫、未有小人而仁者也。
The Master said, “There have been exemplary people who lacked humaneness, but never a petty person who was humane.”
Commentary
ethics Humaneness remains a demanding measure The first clause allows a gap between being counted exemplary and being humane; the second denies humaneness to the petty person. The distinction makes 君子 an ethical standing that can fall short of its fullest demand. Reading “exemplary” as a guarantee of faultlessness would erase the tension the saying creates.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium