Analects 16.6: 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 16.6
孔子曰、侍於君子有三愆、言未及之而言、謂之躁、言及之而不言、謂之隱、未見顏色而言、謂之瞽。
Confucius said, “When attending an exemplary person, there are three mistakes: speaking before it is time to speak is called rashness; keeping silent when it is time to speak is called concealment; speaking before looking at their expression is called blindness.”
Commentary
ethics Time to speak, time to notice The first two errors are opposites: speaking too soon and withholding speech when it is called for. The third concerns failure to look at the person one is attending. 瞽, “blindness,” turns that failure of attention into an image. The setting gives the exemplary person a position of authority, while the advice requires attentive participation as well as restraint.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high