Analects 3.15: 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 3.15
子入大廟、每事問。或曰、孰謂鄹人之子知禮乎、入大廟、每事問。子聞之曰、是禮也。
The Master entered the great temple and asked about everything. Someone said, “Who says the son of the man from Zou understands ritual? He enters the great temple and asks about everything!” When the Master heard this, he said, “That is ritual.”
Commentary
ritual Asking is part of knowing The observer’s “son of the man from Zou” is a dismissive way to identify the Master inside a question that doubts his ritual knowledge. The reply changes the meaning of the same act: asking carefully is itself ritual conduct. Expertise appears here as attention to the particular occasion.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high