Analects 2.18: 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 2.18
子張學干祿。子曰、多聞闕疑、慎言其餘、則寡尤、多見闕殆、慎行其餘、則寡悔、言寡尤、行寡悔、祿在其中矣。
Zizhang was learning in order to seek an official salary. The Master said, “Listen widely, set aside what is doubtful, and speak cautiously about the rest; then you will incur little blame. Observe widely, set aside what is risky, and act cautiously on the rest; then you will have little to regret. Little blame in your words, little regret in your actions—an official salary lies in this.”
Commentary
ethics Caution rests on wide attention 多聞 and 多見 ask for wide listening and observation before the instruction to set doubtful or risky matters aside. Speech and action then receive parallel disciplines, with blame and regret as their respective consequences. This makes caution depend on a broad encounter with the world.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
politics The salary within the practice Zizhang’s learning is directed toward 祿, the income attached to office. The answer retains that aim, but places it within careful speech and conduct. Its final words locate the salary “within this”: the advice makes the habits just described the route to that income.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium