Analects 6.3: 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 6.3
子華使於齊、冉子為其母請粟。子曰、與之釜。請益。曰、與之庾。冉子與之粟五秉。子曰、赤之適齊也、乘肥馬、衣輕裘、吾聞之也、君子周急、不繼富。原思為之宰、與之粟九百、辭。子曰、毋、以與爾鄰里鄉黨乎。
Zihua went on a mission to Qi. Master Ran asked for grain for Zihua’s mother. The Master said, “Give her a fu.” Master Ran asked for more. “Give her a yu,” he said. Master Ran gave her five bing of grain. The Master said, “When Chi set out for Qi, he rode behind well-fed horses and wore light furs. I have heard that an exemplary person helps those in urgent need and does not add to the wealth of the rich.” Yuan Si served as the Master’s steward. He was given nine hundred measures of grain but declined them. The Master said, “Don’t refuse. Couldn’t you give some to your neighbors and the people of the surrounding communities?”
Commentary
philology Grain and its measures Fu, yu, and bing are names of quantities of grain; the passage gives no conversion ratios. The later gift of nine hundred has no named unit, so “measures” remains generic. In the first exchange, Chi is the name used for Zihua when the Master explains why further support is unnecessary.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
ethics Giving and accepting The two grain episodes belong together. The first gift adds to a household whose prosperity is visible in horses and furs. In the second, accepting a gift would make it possible to help surrounding communities. The question in each case is where the grain can meet a need. Refusing an allowance can forgo an opportunity to share it.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium