Analects 15.4: 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 15.4
子曰、無為而治者、其舜也與、夫何為哉、恭己正南面而已矣。
The Master said, “Was it not Shun who governed without acting? What did he do? He simply held himself reverently and faced due south.”
Commentary
politics Governing and facing south The saying poses a paradox: Shun governs without acting, yet maintains a reverent bearing and a precise orientation. Legge makes the south-facing position a royal seat. The English preserves the bodily direction itself. The passage suggests that a ruler’s ordered presence can be effective, while leaving the administration that sustains such rule unexpressed.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium