Analects 19.11: 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 19.11
子夏曰、大德不踰閑、小德出入可也。
Zixia said, “If you keep within the bounds in major matters of virtue, you may step in and out in minor ones.”
Commentary
ethics The fence and the lesser matters 閑 supplies the image of a boundary or fence. The saying distinguishes major commitments from lesser conduct, allowing some movement in the latter. It leaves the division between great and small unspecified; the permission depends on the larger boundary remaining intact.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium