Analects 15.17: 衛靈公 (Wei Ling Gong)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 15 tests exemplary conduct under pressure: hunger, going unrecognized, bad government, and the pull of clever speech. Its sayings ask how learning becomes judgment, how humaneness directs action, and how ritual gives that action form. The portraits of unwavering straightness and timely withdrawal leave room for different responses to public disorder. Praise must answer to examination, and responsibility repeatedly returns to oneself. Short assurances sit beside difficult tensions about reputation and the cost of humaneness. The book closes with the Master guiding a visitor through a room, giving the call for consideration a precise human setting.
Analects 15.17
子曰、君子義以為質、禮以行之、孫以出之、信以成之、君子哉。
The Master said, “An exemplary person takes what is right as their substance, puts it into practice through ritual, expresses it with deference, and brings it to completion through trustworthiness. That is an exemplary person!”
Commentary
ethics Substance, practice, expression, completion The sequence begins with 義 as substance, then gives ritual, deference, and trustworthiness distinct work to do. 孫 is read here as deference, the manner in which conduct is brought forth. 信 brings the action to completion by making it dependable. The praise at the end gathers the four elements together; none of the outward qualities replaces the first requirement of what is right.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium