Analects 19.12: 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 19.12
子游曰、子夏之門人小子、當洒掃、應對、進退、則可矣、抑末也、本之則無、如之何。子夏聞之曰、噫、言游過矣、君子之道、孰先傳焉、孰後倦焉、譬諸草木、區以別矣、君子之道、焉可誣也、有始有卒者、其惟聖人乎。
Ziyou said, “Zixia’s young students do well enough at sprinkling and sweeping, answering and responding, coming forward and withdrawing. But these are the branches. As for the root, they have none. What can be done about that?” When Zixia heard this, he said, “Ah, Yan You is mistaken! What in the exemplary person’s Way should be taught first, and what left till later and neglected? Think of plants and trees: they are sorted into different kinds. How could the exemplary person’s Way mislead anyone? Only a sage, surely, can carry it through from beginning to end.”
Commentary
philology Branches, roots, and different plants Ziyou grants the students competence in daily service and forms of response but calls these the branches, 末, without a root, 本. Zixia replies with plants and trees distinguished by kind. Read as an image of learners, this supports different teaching for different capacities. Yan You is the person whose criticism Zixia answers, called Ziyou at the opening.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
translation What comes first in teaching? Legge reads the questions as rejecting a division into important subjects taught and secondary subjects neglected; he then takes the plant comparison as the sorting of students. The Chinese first/later contrast also permits a question about the order of instruction. The English keeps both order and neglect visible. The final appeal to the sage reserves the complete course, from beginning to end, for an exceptional achievement.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium