Analects 19.8: 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 19.8
子夏曰、小人之過也、必文。
Zixia said, “A petty person always dresses up their mistakes.”
Commentary
philology Dressing up a fault 文 is a verb here: to ornament or put a pleasing form on something. Its object is a mistake, so the adornment serves as concealment or excuse. The same book later makes the exemplary person’s faults visible and correctable through the eclipse image.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high