Analects 8.7: 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 8.7
曾子曰、士、不可以不弘毅、任重而道遠。仁以為己任、不亦重乎、死而後已、不亦遠乎。
Master Zeng said, “A scholar must be broad-minded and resolute: the burden is heavy and the road is long. To take humaneness as one’s own burden—is that not heavy? To stop only at death—is the road not long?”
Commentary
ethics The burden is humaneness 士 is rendered “scholar,” while Legge uses “officer.” The preceding trust with an heir and a state keeps public responsibility in view. 弘 asks for breadth, and 毅 for resolve: humaneness is the burden the person takes on, and death is the stated end of carrying it. 道 in the image of the long road has an ordinary spatial sense as well as an ethical resonance.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium