Analects 8.21: 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 8.21
子曰、禹吾無間然矣、菲飲食、而致孝乎鬼神、惡衣服、而致美乎黻冕、卑宮室、而盡力乎溝恤、禹吾無間然矣。
The Master said, “As for Yu, I can find no fault with him. He kept his own food and drink meager, yet he gave the fullest filial devotion to the spirits. He wore poor clothes, yet made his sacrificial apron and cap splendid. He kept his dwelling humble, yet he put all his strength into ditches and water channels. As for Yu, I can find no fault with him.”
Commentary
ritual Where Yu puts his resources Three pairings set limited personal consumption beside full devotion or effort: food and drink beside service to spirits, ordinary clothes beside ritual dress, and the dwelling beside waterworks. 孝 is filial devotion, the devotion owed to parents, here extended to the spirits. The repeated declaration that Yu has no fault frames these priorities as a complete judgment of him.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
source variant Ditches and channels The Chinese here prints 溝恤. Chinese Wikisource reads 溝洫, naming ditches and channels, and Legge’s English also describes water channels. The translation follows 洫 for the second character; 恤 would instead suggest care or concern. The difference bears directly on the work to which Yu gives his strength.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: medium