Analects 5.19: 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 5.19
季文子三思而後行。子聞之曰、再、斯可矣。
Ji Wenzi thought three times before acting. When the Master heard this, he said, “Twice would do.”
Commentary
ethics Enough deliberation Three acts of consideration are answered with two. The brevity puts a limit on prolonging deliberation before action. It gives no account of what Ji Wenzi was deciding, so the number remains a pointed response to his habit.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high