Analects 16.8: 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 16.8
孔子曰、君子有三畏、畏天命、畏大人、畏聖人之言。小人不知天命、而不畏也、狎大人、侮聖人之言。
Confucius said, “An exemplary person stands in awe of three things: Heaven’s command, great people, and the words of sages. A petty person does not understand Heaven’s command and so feels no awe; they are overfamiliar with great people and scorn the words of sages.”
Commentary
philology Awe and overfamiliarity 畏 combines fear with reverent restraint, expressed here as awe. 天命, Heaven’s command, is something to recognize and respect. 大人, “great people,” can carry social authority as well as stature of character; the sentence does not separate the two. The petty person’s failure has three corresponding forms: not understanding, treating great people with undue familiarity, and scorning the words of sages.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium