Analects 15.41: 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 15.41
師冕見、及階、子曰、階也。及席、子曰、席也。皆坐、子告之曰、某在斯、某在斯。師冕出、子張問曰、與師言之道與。子曰、然、固相師之道也。
Music Master Mian came to visit. When he reached the steps, the Master said, “The steps.” When he reached the mat, the Master said, “The mat.” When everyone was seated, the Master told him, “So-and-so is here; so-and-so is here.” After Music Master Mian left, Zizhang asked, “Is that the way to speak with a music master?” The Master said, “Yes. That is indeed the way to assist a music master.”
Commentary
translation The music master and his guide Legge identifies Mian as a music master and renders the final assistance as guiding the blind. The Chinese calls him 師 and shows the Master supplying spatial and social information, without separately stating that Mian cannot see. The English keeps the title and the acts of assistance; Legge’s reading explains why these ordinary details need to be spoken.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
ethics Making the room available The help changes as the visit proceeds: first the steps, then the place to sit, then the people in the room. 某 marks names that the narrator leaves unspecified, represented by the repeated “so-and-so.” Zizhang asks about the manner of speaking, and the reply names assistance as its purpose. The scene makes considerate conduct concrete.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high