Analects 6.14: 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 6.14
子曰、不有祝鮀之佞、而有宋朝之美、難乎免於今之世矣。
The Master said, “Without the ritual speaker Tuo’s glib tongue, even with the beauty of Chao of Song, it is hard to escape harm in this age.”
Commentary
translation Does beauty help without speech? The English gives 而 a concessive force: someone lacks Tuo’s persuasive speech but has Chao’s beauty. Legge extends the opening negative over both qualities, making speech and beauty jointly necessary for escaping harm. The difference turns on the scope of 不有 and the relation expressed by 而. Either construction makes the judgment on the present age severe.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium