Analects 5.25: 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 5.25
顏淵季路侍。子曰、盍各言爾志。子路曰、願車馬、衣輕裘、與朋友共、蔽之而無憾。顏淵曰、願無伐善、無施勞。子路曰、願聞子之志。子曰、老者安之、朋友信之、少者懷之。
Yan Yuan and Jilu were attending the Master. He said, “Why not each tell me what you aspire to?” Zilu said, “I would like to share my carriage, horses, and light fur robes with friends, and feel no regret if they wore them out.” Yan Yuan said, “I would like not to boast of my merits or impose hardships on others.” Zilu said, “I would like to hear what you aspire to.” The Master said, “I would give the old peace, keep faith with friends, and cherish the young.”
Commentary
ethics Three aspirations The opening calls Zilu 季路, Jilu; his speeches use 子路. Sharing possessions without regret expresses his wish through friendship. Yan Yuan turns to how he treats merit and hardship, and the Master ranges across the old, friends, and the young. The exchange turns assessment into a conversation in which companions and teacher state their own aims.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
source variant Wearing out the shared possessions The Chinese prints 蔽, normally “cover,” in the clause about what happens to the shared possessions. Legge’s facing English speaks of spoiling them, matching the sense of 敝, “wear out,” a different character. “Wore them out” follows that sense while the Chinese retains 蔽.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
translation What does Yan Yuan wish not to impose? 無施勞 permits more than one reading. This English takes 施 as laying something upon others and 勞 as hardship or toil. Legge instead takes the clause as refusing to display meritorious deeds, making it parallel to not boasting of excellence. The chosen reading extends Yan Yuan’s restraint from claims about himself to burdens placed on others.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
philology The Master’s wishes and their recipients The English gives the Master agency across the three clauses: bringing peace to the old, keeping faith with friends, cherishing the young. The compact wording also allows emphasis on their responses—old people finding ease with him, friends trusting him, the young feeling drawn to him. The scope of his concern reaches across these different relationships.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium