Analects 16.14: 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 16.14
邦君子之妻、君稱之曰夫人、夫人自稱小童、邦人稱之、曰君夫人、稱諸異邦、曰寡小君、異邦人稱之、亦曰君夫人。
The ruler of a state calls his wife “Lady.” She calls herself “little child.” The people of the state call her “the lord’s Lady”; when speaking of her to another state, they call her “our unworthy lesser ruler.” People from other states also call her “the lord’s Lady.”
Commentary
source variant The ruler’s wife The opening Chinese prints 邦君子之妻, with an extra 子 after 君. The comparison text has 邦君之妻, “the wife of a state’s ruler,” and Legge follows that sense. The English takes this reading; the displayed Chinese retains 子.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
ritual Titles change with the speaker The five situations distinguish the ruler’s name for his wife, her self-description, her people’s usage at home and abroad, and foreigners’ usage. “Lady” renders 夫人; “little child” keeps the self-lowering 小童. In 寡小君, “our unworthy lesser ruler,” 寡 expresses a conventional claim to little worth and 小君 marks her subordinate rank. The wording gives a social position, not a personal assessment. Legge transliterates the titles; the English here makes their differences visible.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium