Analects 6.1: 雍也 (Yong Ye)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 6 asks how character becomes visible in governing, learning, giving, and answering other people. Judgments of practical ability sit beside a refusal of office. Yan Hui’s love of learning, steadiness in humaneness, and joy under hardship are framed by grief at his early death. The short sayings test relations between substance and refinement, knowledge and delight, reverence and distance. The closing exchange moves from the achievement of helping the people on a vast scale to a nearby method of humaneness: using one’s own desire for a firm footing and progress to help others find theirs.
Analects 6.1
子曰、雍也可使南面。仲弓問子桑伯子。子曰、可也、簡。仲弓曰、居敬而行簡、以臨其民、不亦可乎、居簡而行簡、無乃大簡乎。子曰、雍之言然。
The Master said, “Yong could be given the seat facing south.” Zhonggong asked about Zisang Bozi. The Master said, “He would do; he keeps things simple.” Zhonggong said, “To maintain reverence within and govern one’s people with a light hand—wouldn’t that do? But to be lax within and govern with a light hand—isn’t that altogether too lax?” The Master said, “Yong is right.”
Commentary
translation The seat facing south Legge renders 南面 as the position of a prince. Keeping the seat facing south lets the political image remain visible. The closing reply attributes Zhonggong’s words to Yong, identifying the two names within the dialogue. Zhonggong’s question thus follows the judgment that he himself could govern.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
politics Simplicity needs reverence 簡 can suggest freedom from fuss or a lack of care. Zhonggong distinguishes a light hand in governing others from laxity toward oneself. 敬, reverence, supplies the inner discipline that makes simple action acceptable. The English varies its rendering of 簡 to make the change from restrained government to excessive laxity audible.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium