Analects 2.10: 為政 (Wei Zheng)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 2 connects government with the character and practices of those who govern. The pole-star image and the contrast between punishment and ritual give two ways of thinking about how people respond to authority. Four answers about filial devotion move through ritual, parental concern, reverence, and demeanor. Sayings on learning then test how knowledge appears in thought, conduct, and honest acknowledgment of limits. The closing exchanges return to public authority, trustworthiness, inherited ritual, and the courage to act on what is right. The collection repeatedly asks what gives outward action its substance.
Analects 2.10
子曰、視其所以。觀其所由。察其所安。人焉廋哉、人焉廋哉。
The Master said, “Look at the means a person uses; observe the course they follow; examine where they feel at home. How can a person hide? How can a person hide?”
Commentary
translation Three ways of looking 所以 can point to the means someone uses, or more broadly to what they do, as Legge takes it. 所由 concerns the course or source of conduct; Legge makes it a person’s motives. “The course they follow” keeps its path image. 所安, “where they feel at home,” asks where conduct settles into preference. The repeated final question insists on the cumulative force of these observations.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium