Analects 3.11: 八佾 (Ba Yi)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 3 examines what gives ritual its authority and meaning. Household displays borrow the forms of rulers, while humaneness, restraint, grief, and reverence test what those forms can express. Questions about poetry, inherited rites, sacrifice, and music show understanding at work: a learner carries an image further, the Master asks about everything, and a musical whole holds its parts together. Rulers and ministers each receive a standard of conduct. The book ends by distinguishing beauty from goodness and by asking what high office, ritual, and mourning are worth without the qualities they require.
Analects 3.11
或問禘之說。子曰、不知也、知其說者、之於天下也、其如示諸斯乎。指其掌。
Someone asked what the di sacrifice meant. The Master said, “I do not know. For someone who understood its meaning, would governing all under Heaven not be as clear as this?” He pointed to his palm.
Commentary
translation The world and an open palm The Chinese moves from knowing the rite’s meaning to one’s relation to 天下, all under Heaven, and then to the visible palm. “Governing” makes that relation explicit, as Legge does. The image suggests both a clear view and ease of handling. The initial “I do not know” is followed by a claim about what such knowledge would make possible; the saying leaves open whether this is a profession of ignorance or a withholding of explanation.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium