Analects 8.1: 泰伯 (Tai Bo)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 8 places personal conduct beside the use and relinquishment of power. Taibo’s yielding opens the book; praise of Shun, Yu, Yao, and Zhou closes it. Between these stands a sequence in Master Zeng’s voice, beginning in illness and extending to the lifelong burden of humaneness. Ritual gives qualities their measure, while poetry and music form a person’s response. Learning is tested against talent, salary, public service, and withdrawal. The book ends with Yu’s choices: little for personal comfort, full care for ritual and waterworks.
Analects 8.1
子曰、太伯其可謂至德也已矣、三以天下讓、民無得而稱焉。
The Master said, “Taibo may truly be said to possess the highest virtue. Three times he yielded all under Heaven, yet the people had no way to praise him.”
Commentary
translation Yielding without praise The praise turns on 讓, yielding: Taibo gives up a claim to rule, yet the people cannot find a way to praise him. Legge explains this by their ignorance of his motives. The Chinese leaves the reason unstated. It preserves the tension between the highest virtue and a deed that eludes public acknowledgment; the same praise of 至德 returns with Zhou at the end of the book.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
source variant Two forms of Taibo’s name The heading’s 泰伯 and this saying’s 太伯 name the same Taibo: Chinese Wikisource has 泰伯 here, the classical commentary uses both forms, and Legge gives the heading and saying the same English name.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: high