Analects 9.11: 子罕 (Zi Han)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 9 presents the Master through questions about his learning, skills, character, and place in the cultural tradition. His own accounts of ordinary work and unfinished attainment stand beside his students’ admiration. Ritual decisions distinguish useful change from arrogant display, while the jade exchange joins willingness to serve with waiting for someone who recognizes worth. Images of flowing water, earthworks, growing plants, and winter trees give passing time, effort, and tested character concrete form. Praise of learners sits beside regret and warnings about unfinished growth. The later sayings ask for correction, resolve, and the ability to weigh circumstances after learning to stand firm.
Analects 9.11
子疾病、子路使門人為臣。病間曰、久矣哉、由之行詐也、無臣而為有臣、吾誰欺、欺天乎。且予與其死於臣之手也、無寧死於二三子之手乎、且予縱不得大葬、予死於道路乎。
The Master was gravely ill, and Zilu had the students act as his official attendants. When the illness eased, the Master said, “How long this deceit of You’s has gone on! Pretending I have official attendants when I have none—whom am I deceiving? Am I deceiving Heaven? Besides, would I not rather die in the hands of you, my students, than in the hands of official attendants? Even if I cannot have a grand funeral, am I going to die by the roadside?”
Commentary
ritual Care without a false office 臣 names an official relationship, rendered here as “official attendants.” Zilu has the students act in that role, but the Master objects that he has no such attendants. His preference for dying among the students gives their actual care more value than the grand funeral suggested by the arrangement. The roadside question rejects the assumption that foregoing official display means abandonment.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
philology The name You You, written 由, is the name used for Zilu in the Master’s response: Zilu arranges the attendants, and the Master calls this You’s deception. The name differs from both the English pronoun and Master You, 有子, who speaks in Book 1. The possessive “You’s” keeps the personal name clear within the speech.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high