Analects 8.3: 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 8.3
曾子有疾、召門弟子曰、啟予足、啟予手、詩云、戰戰兢兢、如臨深淵、如履薄冰、而今而後、吾知免夫、小子。
Master Zeng was ill. He called his disciples and said, “Uncover my feet. Uncover my hands. The Poems say, ‘Trembling and cautious, as though at the edge of a deep chasm, as though treading on thin ice.’ From now on I know I have come through unharmed, my young friends.”
Commentary
translation The hands, the feet, and escape Master Zeng appears here with disciples whom he summons to his sickbed. The uncovered hands and feet give “escape” in 免 a bodily setting; Legge explicitly understands escape from bodily injury. “Come through unharmed” follows that connection. The Chinese does not name the danger escaped. The poem’s trembling and thin ice make caution audible just before Zeng announces relief.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium