Analects 3.6: 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 3.6
季氏旅於泰山。子謂冉有曰、女弗能救與。對曰、不能。子曰、嗚呼、曾謂泰山、不如林放乎。
The Ji family held a sacrifice at Mount Tai. The Master said to Ran You, “Could you not prevent this?” He answered, “I could not.” The Master said, “Alas! Can we really think Mount Tai less discerning than Lin Fang?”
Commentary
ritual Can the mountain be deceived? Ran You is addressed as someone who might restrain the Ji family. His inability leads to the comparison with Lin Fang, whose earlier question sought the root of ritual. Mount Tai is treated as a discerning recipient of sacrifice: the family’s display cannot by itself make an improper offering acceptable.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium