Analects 5.26: 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 5.26
子曰、已矣乎、吾未見能見其過、而內自訟者也。
The Master said, “It is hopeless! I have yet to see anyone who can see their own faults and accuse themselves inwardly.”
Commentary
philology Recognizing a fault and answering for it 見 repeats: the Master has not seen someone able to see their own faults. 訟 adds the language of accusation or dispute, turned inward by 內自. Recognition must become an encounter with one’s own responsibility; the opening exclamation voices frustration at how rarely that happens.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high