Analects 16.2: 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 16.2
孔子曰、天下有道、則禮樂征伐、自天子出、天下無道、則禮樂征伐、自諸侯出、自諸侯出、蓋十世希不失矣、自大夫出、五世希不失矣、陪臣執國命、三世希不失矣。天下有道、則政不在大夫。天下有道、則庶人不議。
Confucius said, “When all under Heaven has the Way, rites, music, and punitive campaigns come from the Son of Heaven. When all under Heaven lacks the Way, rites, music, and punitive campaigns come from the rulers of the states. When they come from the rulers of the states, those rulers seldom keep their power for ten generations; when they come from the great officers, those officers seldom keep it for five. When the officers’ retainers take command of the state, they seldom keep that power for three generations. When all under Heaven has the Way, government is not in the hands of the great officers. When all under Heaven has the Way, the common people do not debate affairs of government.”
Commentary
politics Authority passes downward Rites, music, and punitive campaigns belong together as acts of public authority. The saying places their proper source in the Son of Heaven, then follows power downward through state rulers, great officers, and those officers’ own retainers. Each lower level has a shorter span: ten, five, then three generations. 希, “seldom,” leaves these as broad judgments rather than exceptionless predictions.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
politics The common people and government The last sentence describes the common people as not debating public affairs when the Way prevails. 議 can include discussion and critical judgment; its object is supplied from the preceding concern with government. The saying treats the absence of such debate as part of an ordered hierarchy. It does not state how that silence comes about.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium