Analects 3.17: 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 3.17
子貢欲去告朔之餼羊。子曰、賜也、爾愛其羊、我愛其禮。
Zigong wanted to do away with the live sheep offered at the announcement of the new moon. The Master said, “Ci, you care about the sheep; I care about the rite.”
Commentary
ritual One word, two objects of care Zigong proposes removing the sheep; Ci is the name used to address him in the answer. 餼 marks the animal as supplied alive for the offering. The repeated 愛, “care about,” places the sheep and the rite on opposite sides of a shared concern. Zigong’s motive is left open: the wording does not decide between compassion for the animal and concern about expenditure.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium