Analects 5.15: 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 5.15
子謂子產、有君子之道四焉、其行己也恭、其事上也敬、其養民也惠、其使民也義。
The Master said of Zichan, “He observed the Way of an exemplary person in four respects: he was respectful in his own conduct, reverent in serving his superiors, generous in caring for the people, and just in calling on them to serve.”
Commentary
politics Four relations of exemplary conduct The four judgments distinguish conduct toward oneself, superiors, and the people in two situations. 恭 marks respectful bearing; 敬 adds reverence in service. Caring for the people calls for generosity, while requiring their service calls for 義, what is right, rendered here as “just.” The distinction makes demands on the people answerable to a standard.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high