Analects 5.12: 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 5.12
子貢曰、夫子之文章、可得而聞也、夫子之言性與天道、不可得而聞也。
Zigong said, “We can hear the Master on the cultural tradition. We cannot hear him speak about human nature and the Way of Heaven.”
Commentary
translation The limits of what Zigong hears 文章 can encompass cultivated expression and learning. This English takes it as the cultural tradition taught in discourse; Legge includes personal displays of principle as well as ordinary explanations. The contrast concerns what Zigong can hear. It leaves open why words about human nature and Heaven’s Way are inaccessible to him.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium