Analects 19.10: 子張 (Zi Zhang)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Zizhang, Zixia, Ziyou, Master Zeng, and Zigong speak about learning, friendship, mourning, and public responsibility. Their judgments sometimes conflict: who should be welcomed as a friend, how teaching reaches the root, and whether impressive achievement amounts to humaneness. The final sayings turn to reputation and the limits of judging another person. Zigong defends the Master through images of hidden interiors, the sun and moon, and rule that would draw a response from the people.
Analects 19.10
子夏曰、君子信而後勞其民、未信、則以為厲己也、信而後諫、未信、則以為謗己也。
Zixia said, “An exemplary person gains the people’s trust before setting them to work. Without that trust, they think they are being oppressed. Before offering correction to a ruler, too, one must gain trust. Without it, the ruler takes the correction as slander.”
Commentary
politics Trust in both directions 信 is being trusted here, the condition for placing demands on people and for offering correction upward. The second half implies a ruler as the recipient of 諫, admonition. In each direction the same action can be received as an injury when trust is absent. The wording makes trust something to establish before acting.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium