Analects 15.9: 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 15.9
子貢問為仁。子曰、工欲善其事、必先利其器、居是邦也、事其大夫之賢者、友其士之仁者。
Zigong asked about practicing humaneness. The Master said, “An artisan who wants to do good work must first sharpen the tools. When living in a state, serve the worthy among its high officials and make friends with the humane among its scholars.”
Commentary
ethics Tools and the company one keeps Zigong asks how to practice humaneness; the answer starts with an artisan preparing tools and ends with choosing people to serve and befriend. The implied preparation is relational. 賢, worthiness, describes the high officials; 仁, humaneness, describes the scholars chosen as friends. The analogy asks what can equip a person to act well within a particular state.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high