Analects 19.25: 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 19.25
陳子禽謂子貢曰、子為恭也、仲尼豈賢於子乎。子貢曰、君子一言以為知、一言以為不知、言不可不慎也。夫子之不可及也、猶天之不可階而升也。夫子之得邦家者、所謂立之斯立、道之期行、綏之期來、動之斯和、其生也榮、其死也哀、如之何其可及也。
Chen Ziqin said to Zigong, “You are being deferential. How could Zhongni be worthier than you?” Zigong said, “An exemplary person may be judged wise by a single remark, or unwise by a single remark. One must take care with words. The Master cannot be matched, just as the sky cannot be reached by climbing steps. If the Master were given a state or a great household to govern, it would be as the saying goes: ‘Set them on their feet, and they stand; guide them, and they go; give them peace, and they come; stir them, and they act in harmony.’ He would be honored in life and mourned in death. How could anyone match him?”
Commentary
ethics One remark as evidence Zigong answers a flattering comparison with a warning about speech. A single remark can make an exemplary person seem wise or unwise. The warning applies immediately to Chen Ziqin’s judgment, turning the praise of Zigong into a test of the speaker’s understanding.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
politics A ruler and the people’s response The imagined rule moves through four paired actions: establishing, guiding, giving peace, and stirring people to act. Each is answered by a response from the people. 邦家 allows both a state and a ruling household. The closing honor and grief describe the attachment such rule would earn in life and death.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
source variant The repeated response in the closing saying The Chinese printed here has 期 in 道之期行 and 綏之期來. The comparison Chinese text has 斯 in both places, matching 斯 in the surrounding clauses. The translation reads all four as action followed by response, “and they …,” supported also by Legge’s English. The two printed 期 characters remain in the Chinese.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: medium