Analects 19.3: 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 19.3

19.3

子夏之門人問交於子張。子張曰、子夏云何。對曰、子夏曰、可者與之、其不可者拒之。子張曰、異乎吾所聞、君子尊賢而容眾、嘉善而矜不能、我之大賢與、於人何所不容、我之不賢與、人將拒我、如之何其拒人也。

19.3

Zixia’s students asked Zizhang about friendship. Zizhang said, “What does Zixia say?” They replied, “Zixia says, ‘Associate with those who are fit for it; reject those who are not.’” Zizhang said, “That differs from what I have heard: ‘An exemplary person honors the worthy and makes room for everyone, praises the good and has compassion for those who fall short.’ If I am a person of great worth, whom could I not make room for? If I am unworthy, others will reject me. How could I reject others?”

Commentary

ethics Two accounts of friendship Zixia’s students bring his rule to Zizhang, who openly disagrees. His response combines esteem for the worthy with room for everyone, including compassion for those who cannot measure up. His two conditional questions turn the decision back on the person judging: either great worth permits generosity, or one’s own shortcomings make rejection precarious.

Basis: textual-inference

Confidence: high

translation What makes someone fit? The Chinese 可 leaves the criterion of fitness unstated. Legge makes it the benefit someone can bring you. “Fit for it” retains the narrower claim of suitability for association. Zizhang’s answer then introduces worth, goodness, and inability as the terms in which he understands the dispute.

Basis: translation-comparison

Confidence: medium