Analects 19.2: 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 19.2
子張曰、執德不弘、信道不篤、焉能為有、焉能為亡。
Zizhang said, “If you hold to virtue without breadth and trust the Way without depth, what difference does your presence or absence make?”
Commentary
philology Breadth and depth of commitment 弘 suggests breadth or expansiveness; 篤 suggests firmness and depth. The final 有 and 亡 can ask whether this person’s presence or absence counts for anything. They can also be read as asking whether such weak commitment counts as having virtue and the Way or lacking them. The translation takes the first reading.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium