Analects 18.8: 微子 (Wei Zi)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 18 places different responses to failed public life beside one another. Withdrawal, continued service, and fatal protest can all receive praise, while Confucius himself leaves when employment fails or court duties are neglected. The long encounters with a singer, two plowmen, and an old farmer turn departure into an argument: can personal integrity be preserved by leaving the human world behind? Confucius insists on human company, and Zilu defends duty even without the prospect of success. The later judgments distinguish kinds of withdrawal; a dispersal of musicians and advice about employing people return the question to the relationships that sustain public life.
Analects 18.8
逸民、伯夷、叔齊、虞仲、夷逸、朱張、柳下惠、少連。子曰、不降其志、不辱其身、伯夷叔齊與。謂柳下惠少連、降志辱身矣、言中倫、行中慮、其斯而已矣。謂虞仲夷逸、隱居放言、身中清、廢中權。我則異於是、無可無不可。
People who withdrew from public life: Boyi, Shuqi, Yuzhong, Yiyi, Zhuzhang, Liuxia Hui, and Shaolian. The Master said, “Those who would not lower their aims or disgrace themselves—surely Boyi and Shuqi!” Of Liuxia Hui and Shaolian he said, “They lowered their aims and brought disgrace on themselves. Still, their words were well ordered and their conduct well considered. That was all.” Of Yuzhong and Yiyi he said, “They lived in seclusion and spoke freely. They kept themselves pure, and their withdrawal suited the circumstances.” “I am different from these people: I am committed in advance neither to accepting nor to refusing.”
Commentary
ethics Different measures of withdrawal The passage distinguishes unlowered aims, compromised standing with measured conduct, and a seclusion suited to circumstances. Liuxia Hui, already seen repeatedly dismissed from office, appears in the middle pair. Zhuzhang is included in the opening list but receives no separate assessment. The list therefore supplies examples without giving each a biography.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
philology Speech, judgment, and circumstance “Spoke freely” reads 放言 as releasing or giving free scope to speech, the construction Legge also follows. Reading 放 as setting speech aside would instead stress silence. 權 in the last judgment suggests weighing circumstances; it allows the withdrawal of Yuzhong and Yiyi to be fitting without making withdrawal an unconditional rule.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
ethics Neither accepting nor refusing in advance 無可無不可 closes the comparisons with a refusal to settle on one course beforehand. In this setting, accepting or refusing concerns participation and withdrawal. The closing statement claims freedom to judge the occasion after several forms of integrity have been recognized; the preceding praise and criticism still supply standards.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium