Analects 15.23: 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 15.23
子貢問曰、有一言、而可以終身行之者乎。子曰、其恕乎、己所不欲、勿施於人。
Zigong asked, “Is there one word to practice throughout life?” The Master said, “Would it not be consideration for others? Do not impose on others what you do not want for yourself.”
Commentary
translation Consideration for a lifetime 恕 is one Chinese term, rendered here by a phrase. Legge calls it reciprocity; “consideration for others” preserves its link with Master Zeng’s pairing of wholeheartedness and consideration at 4.15. The explanation here is specifically negative: what one does not want for oneself is not to be imposed on others. This is a rule of restraint, not a claim that everyone wants identical things.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium