Analects 16.4: 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 16.4
孔子曰、益者三友、損者三友、友直、友諒、友多聞、益矣、友便辟、友善柔、友便佞、損矣。
Confucius said, “Three kinds of friends help you, and three harm you. Friends who are upright, trustworthy, or widely informed help you. Friends who are fawning, falsely agreeable, or glib harm you.”
Commentary
ethics Friends who help one see Uprightness, reliability, and wide learning give friendship something more demanding than agreement. The harmful trio offers flattering conduct, an agreeable surface, and fluent speech. 諒 here concerns being dependable; 多聞 is literally having heard much. The book later praises a warm expression, so the target here is the pleasing manner that takes the place of integrity.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium