Analects 16.10: 季氏 (Ji Shi)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 16 opens with a threatened attack and a sustained argument about responsibility: ministers cannot excuse their part in a policy simply by saying their lord wants it. Two sayings then trace political authority as it passes into lower hands. Lists of friends, pleasures, errors, dangers, and concerns bring questions of judgment into ordinary conduct. Learning remains possible under difficulty, while words must be tested against lives actually seen. Wealth and lasting praise diverge in the contrast between a duke and two hungry men. A son’s account of learning the Poems and ritual makes the absence of special treatment itself a lesson. The book closes with the different titles used for a ruler’s wife, giving speech a precise place within social relations.
Analects 16.10
孔子曰、君子有九思、視思明、聽思聰、色思溫、貌思恭、言思忠、事思敬、疑思問、忿思難、見得思義。
Confucius said, “An exemplary person has nine concerns: to see clearly, to hear distinctly, to be warm in expression, respectful in bearing, sincere in speech, and conscientious in action; to ask when in doubt, to think of trouble when angry, and to consider what is right when gain is in sight.”
Commentary
ethics Nine occasions for attention The list moves through seeing and hearing, expression and bearing, speech and action, then doubt, anger, and gain. 思, consideration, governs every item. 忠 becomes sincerity in speech here, a local expression of wholeheartedness; 敬 becomes conscientious attention to action. The last three concerns make reflection practical: ask, foresee trouble, and judge an advantage by 義, what is right.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high