Analects 19.22: 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 19.22
衛公孫朝問於子貢曰、仲尼焉學。子貢曰、文武之道、未墜於地、在人、賢者識其大者、不賢者識其小者、莫不有文武之道焉、夫子焉不學、而亦何常師之有、
Gongsun Chao of Wei asked Zigong, “Where did Zhongni learn?” Zigong said, “The Way of Wen and Wu has not fallen to the ground. It lives in people. The worthy remember its great matters; the less worthy remember its lesser ones. Everyone holds something of the Way of Wen and Wu. Where could the Master not learn? And why would he have one fixed teacher?”
Commentary
ethics A tradition carried by many people The Way survives in people who preserve different portions of it. Even those called less worthy hold something from which learning is possible. The final questions make this dispersed inheritance the basis for learning broadly without a single fixed teacher.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
philology Zhongni and the Master Gongsun Chao asks about Zhongni, and Zigong answers about the Master. Their exchange establishes that the two names point to the same person. Wen and Wu are the named bearers of the Way being discussed; the reply locates its continued presence in the people who remember it.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high