Analects 5.10: 公冶長 (Gongye Chang)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 5 tests judgments of people against their conduct. The Master praises particular abilities and virtues while repeatedly withholding the larger judgment of humaneness. Marriage choices, public service, friendship, speech, and learning supply different kinds of evidence. Several exchanges expose a distance between what someone says or wants and what they can do; Zai Yu’s conduct even changes the Master’s way of judging. Near the end, the teacher and his companions state their own aspirations. The closing sayings turn assessment inward, toward recognizing faults and continuing to love learning.
Analects 5.10
子曰、吾未見剛者。或對曰、申棖。子曰、棖也慾、焉得剛。
The Master said, “I have yet to see a firm person.” Someone replied, “Shen Cheng.” The Master said, “Cheng is driven by desire. How can he be firm?”
Commentary
ethics Firmness under pressure Shen Cheng is offered as a counterexample to the Master’s claim that he has seen no firm person. The reply makes desire the relevant weakness: someone driven by what they want can be pulled away from a firm course. 剛 is tested through resistance to that pressure.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium