Analects 8.20: 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 8.20
舜有臣五人、而天下治。武王曰、予有亂臣十人。孔子曰、才難、不其然乎、唐虞之際、於斯為盛、有婦人焉、九人而已三分天下有其二、以服事殷、周之德、其可謂至德也已矣。
Shun had five ministers, and all under Heaven was well governed. King Wu said, “I have ten ministers who can bring order.” Confucius said, “Talent is hard to find—is that not so? From the days of Tang and Yu onward, talent reached its height in this age. There was a woman among them, so there were only nine men. Zhou held two thirds of all under Heaven, yet served Yin. Zhou’s virtue may truly be called the highest virtue.”
Commentary
philology Ministers who bring order 亂 in 亂臣 has an ordering sense here. The opening statement about Shun’s well-governed realm and King Wu’s claim about his ministers make that reading coherent. Calling them disorderly ministers would reverse the local argument. The same character has already named a musical finale as well as political disorder.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
philology Two names written Yu 虞 in “Tang and Yu” differs from 禹, the Yu praised with Shun in 8.18 and again in 8.21. The classical commentary identifies 唐 and 虞 as titles of Yao and Shun; Legge calls them dynasties. On the classical reading, the earlier pair refers to Yao and Shun, not to Tang and the ruler Yu.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: high
translation Which age has more talent The English takes the time of Tang and Yu as the beginning of a comparison and 斯 as this age, the age of King Wu’s ministers: talent reaches its height here. Legge makes the earlier meeting of Tang and Yu more abundant in talent than Zhou. The compact 唐虞之際於斯為盛 leaves the historical relation and direction of comparison difficult; the English commits to the first reading.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium
politics Ten ministers, nine men The woman remains one of the ten ministers King Wu claims, but the next sentence subtracts her and counts nine. “Nine men” brings out that shift from the full group to a male count. Her identity is not supplied. The phrasing preserves both her inclusion among the ministers and the unequal reckoning that follows.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
translation Zhou serves Yin The last statement gives no named individual as its subject. Legge supplies King Wen; the English uses Zhou, named in the final praise, and leaves the particular ruler implicit. Possession of two thirds of the realm is set beside continued service to Yin. The phrase “highest virtue” repeats the opening judgment of Taibo and his yielding.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium