Analects 3.22: 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 3.22
子曰、管仲之器小哉。或曰、管仲儉乎。曰、管氏有三歸、官事不攝、焉得儉。然則管仲知禮乎。曰、邦君樹塞門、管氏亦樹塞門、邦君為兩君之好、有反坫、管氏亦有反坫、管氏而知禮、孰不知禮。
The Master said, “Guan Zhong’s capacity was small indeed.” Someone asked, “Was Guan Zhong frugal?” The Master said, “Guan Zhong had the Sangui, and his officers did not combine duties. How could he count as frugal?” “Then did Guan Zhong understand ritual?” The Master said, “A ruler sets up a screen at his gate; Guan Zhong did too. When two rulers meet in friendship, they have a stand for setting down their cups; Guan Zhong had one too. If Guan Zhong understood ritual, who does not?”
Commentary
ethics Small capacity and large expenditure 器 first means a vessel and here suggests the scope or capacity of a person. The questioner tests whether “small” means frugal. The reply shifts from personal capacity to possessions and staffing: separate duties consume resources. A second question then asks whether the expenditure at least expresses knowledge of ritual.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
philology What is the Sangui? 三歸 literally gives “three returns,” but the sentence identifies it only as something Guan Zhong possessed. Legge also leaves the expression untranslated as “San Kwei.” “Sangui” preserves that unresolved expression. Its exact referent remains uncertain; together with the officers who combine no duties, it is offered as evidence against frugality.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
ritual Copying a ruler’s setting The repeated 邦君, “ruler of a state,” establishes the standard against which Guan Zhong’s screen and cup stand are judged. The second furnishing belongs to a meeting between two rulers. Possessing the same objects does not establish fitness to use them. The final question is therefore an accusation: calling this ritual knowledge would empty the distinction of force.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high