Analects 3.13: 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 3.13
王孫賈問曰、與其媚於奧、寧媚於(zao4上穴，中土，下黽)、何謂也。子曰、不然、獲罪於天、無所禱也。
Wangsun Jia asked, “What does this saying mean: ‘Better to court favor with the stove than with the inner corner’?” The Master said, “That is not so. Once you have offended Heaven, there is nowhere to pray.”
Commentary
ritual Favor within the house, judgment beyond it Wangsun Jia presents a saying about courting favor with one household site rather than another. The Master rejects its strategy by turning to Heaven: offense there cannot be repaired by finding a more convenient recipient of prayer. A political analogy between patrons is possible, but the exchange does not assign the stove and inner corner to named people.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
source variant The character for the stove The Chinese gives a missing character as a written description: 穴 above 土 above 黽, pronounced zào. This identifies 竈, a stove or hearth. Legge’s “furnace” confirms the household object. The English renders the word, while the Chinese display keeps the description.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: high