The Analects and reputation: a note on Analects 15.18 and 15.191

John Makeham

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00007722

The Analects and reputation: a note on Analects 15.18 and 15.191

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009

John Makeham

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John Makeham: Affiliation:
University of Adelaide

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In this note I shall re-present an old solution to a small problem that was noted by Arthur Waley a little over fifty years ago.2 In the course of doing so, I shall also challenge the view that the Analects does lend support to the view that Confucius maintained that it was important for the gentleman (jun zi) to secure a reputation. Finally, I shall comment briefly on the significance that my overall analysis has for the view that the Analects, despite its composite nature,3 can nevertheless be read as a text which has been consciously edited such that it presents internally consistent themes.

Type: Notes and Communications
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , October 1993 , pp. 582 - 586

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00007722 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1993

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References

² More recently, it has also been noted by Eiichi, Kimura in his annotated translation, Rongo (Tokyo, 1970), 412Google Scholar.

³ The two studies which I have found most useful on the question of the composition and dating of the Analects are Yoshio, Takeuchi, Rongo no kenkyū (originally published in 1939), in Takeuchi Yoshio zenshū 10 vols. (Tokyo, 1979) vol. 1,Google Scholar and Eiichi, Kimura, Kōshi to Rongo (Tokyo, 1971).Google Scholar The articles collected in Zhikui, HuLun yu bianzheng (Taipei, 1978)Google Scholar may also be consulted with profit.

⁴ Waley, Arthur, The Analects of Confucius (London, 1938), 197Google Scholar.

^sup5 , Waley, The Analects, p. 197, n.3Google Scholar.

⁶ , Waley, The Analects, 143.Google Scholar For consistency, I have used Waley's translation of this passage, although Lau's could equally well have been used. My own translation follows below.

⁷ A suspicion which is also attributed to Shu, Cui (1740–1816)Google Scholar. See Kametaro, Takigawa, Shiki kaichū kōsō (Taipei, 1982), 47.82 (p. 763).Google Scholar I have not, however, been able to locate this quotation in Cui Dongbi yi shu .

⁸ It is my conjecture that this sentence was probably appended by Sima Qian to justify his own interpretation of the passage.

⁹ , Lau, The Analects, 135Google Scholar, translates as follows: ‘The Master said, “The gentleman hates not leaving behind a name when he is gone”.’ Both translations are appropriate to the sense in which Sima Qian understood the passage (or wanted it to be understood—a view for which I think a case could be made, especially in the light of Sima Qian's philosophy as revealed in Shi ji, juan 61).

¹⁰ Shi ji, 47 (Beijing, 1982), 1943Google Scholar.

¹¹ Shi ji (juan 47), 1943Google Scholar.

¹² The Analects, 72. I have used Lau's translation here because it illustrates an interpretation of the passage that I will argue is mistaken. Waley's interpretation is sound.

¹³ The great Qing dynasty (1644–1911) Confucian scholar, Qian Daxin (1728–1804), for example, quotes Analects 15.19 and 4.5 in support of this view. See his Shi jia zhai yang xin lu , 18.4b–5a, SBBY edition.

¹⁴ Actually, there is little reason to consider this interlocutor to be anything other than a convenient literary persona allowing Xu Gan to introduce his own views on the matter. This device is not uncommon in Han lun , ‘discourses’.

¹⁵ Xu Gan is an important but little studied thinker of the Han-Wei intellectual transition. As one of the ‘seven masters of the jian an (196–220) period’ he was most renowned for his composition of fu ‘rhapsodies’, and ‘discourses’. His importance as a thinker derives principally from his creative appropriation of the name and actuality (ming shi ) polarity, employing it as a philosophical paradigm central to the body of ideas he expounds in Zhong lun, a collection of his surviving philosophical essays. See my Name and actuality in early Chinese thought (Albany, N.Y., forthcoming).

¹⁶ Long xi jing she edition, edited by Guoxun, Zheng (Yangzhou, 1917), B.5aGoogle Scholar.

¹⁷ Yue, YuQun jing ping yi , (1881), 31.19a–19bGoogle Scholar and Kan, Xue, Yangming chuan xi lu , 1.73b, in Wang Wencheng gong quan ji (Shanghai, 1925)Google Scholar, also follow this reading. Indirect support for this reading is also provided in Yi's, Liu (180–221)Google Scholar essay, Zheng ming . in Qun shu zhi yao , SBCK ed., 47.4a. The subject of the passage is also related to Analects 15.19:

‘How can names be corrected?’

‘If a man's actions are not virtuous, then he should not be called by a virtuous name. In calling a man by a particular name, the title must actualize the way he is and reflect how he is constituted. Thereby there will be no actuality which fails to match (chen) its name and no name which fails to be plumb in line with (dang, ) its actuality.’

¹⁸ We also find this interpretation advanced by Shi, Zhang (1133–80)Google Scholar in his Geng si Lun yu jie 8.8a, in Wu qiu1 bei zhai Lun yu ji cheng , compiled by Lingfeng, Yan (Taipei, 1966).Google Scholar His wording also closely resembles that of Xu Gan.

¹⁹ B.5a.

²⁰ On understanding wei in this passage to mean ‘to fear’. ‘to worry’, rather than ‘to hold in awe’, or ‘to respect’, I follow Shulin, Wang, Lun yu yi zhu ji yi wen jiao kan 2 vols. (Taipei, 1981), 1:180,Google Scholar and Bojun, YangLun you yi zhu (Beijing, 1962), 101Google Scholar.

²¹ One possible exception to this is 5.13. Like Waley and Lau, however, I follow the interpretation advanced by Zhu Xi.

²² My interpretation of this sentence follows Eiichi, Kimura, Rongo, 316–17, rather than the standard interpretationGoogle Scholar.

²³ One of the two different ways of looking at the Analects identified by Eno., Robert See his The Confucian creation of heaven (Albany, 1990), 80.Google Scholar The ‘period of time’ he refers to is the Warring States period.