Analects 6.28: 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 6.28
子貢曰、如有博施於民、而能濟眾、何如、可謂仁乎。子曰、何事於仁、必也聖乎、堯舜其猶病諸。夫仁者、己欲立而立人、己欲達而達人。能近取譬、可謂仁之方也已。
Zigong said, “Someone who benefited the people far and wide and could bring relief to the many—what would you say of them? Could they be called humane?” The Master said, “Why stop at humaneness? Surely that would make them a sage! Even Yao and Shun would have found this hard. Humane people, wishing to establish themselves, establish others; wishing to make headway themselves, help others make headway. To be able to draw an analogy from what is close at hand—this can be called the method of humaneness.”
Commentary
translation A task for a sage Zigong begins with the scale of benefit to the people. The Master places such achievement at the level of sagehood and names Yao and Shun as measures of how demanding it would be. 病 is read as finding the task difficult; Legge emphasizes their concern about it. The reply raises the standard before turning to a way of practicing humaneness close at hand.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
ethics An analogy close at hand The desire to become established and make headway is extended to other people through repeated verbs: 立 and 達. This supplies the nearest example for 近取譬, drawing an analogy from what is near. One’s own aspirations become a way to recognize and assist another’s. The ending offers a method of humaneness after the opening question about benefiting people on a vast scale.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high