Analects 7.12: 述而 (Shu Er)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 7 builds a portrait of the Master through self-descriptions, conversations, and observations of his conduct. He loves the ancient tradition, learns through sustained attention, and teaches by asking learners to carry an indication further. Music, mourning, plain food, and illness show how these commitments enter daily life. Political judgment calls for knowing when to act or withdraw and for accepting criticism. Repeated disclaimers about his own attainment sit beside confidence in Heaven and the nearness of humaneness. The closing portrait holds warmth, firmness, respect, and ease together.
Analects 7.12
子之所慎、齊、戰、疾。
The Master was cautious about ritual fasting, war, and illness.
Commentary
ritual Three occasions for caution 齊 is read here as ritual fasting or purification. War and illness follow as two further occasions demanding care. The list gathers situations in which ordinary ease gives way to caution; it describes the Master’s attention rather than a single shared procedure.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium