Analects 19.20: 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 19.20
子貢曰、紂之不善、不如是之甚也、是以君子惡居下流、天下之惡皆歸焉。
Zigong said, “Zhou’s wrongdoing was not as extreme as people say. That is why an exemplary person hates to live downstream: all the world’s evils flow there.”
Commentary
philology Where blame collects 下流 is the lower course of a stream, where things flow together. Zigong uses it for a degraded position that attracts every accusation. His opening claim questions the scale of Zhou’s reported wrongdoing; the rest explains how an already bad name can gather further blame. The translation makes the implied public judgment explicit in “as people say.”
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium