Interpretation and Reasoning

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Chinese text (Analects 8:2)

Direct Rendering

[When/if] [a/the] junzi is affectionate to [his] relatives, then [the] people will be aroused to (or by) ren; [when/if] old [is/are] not forgotten/left behind, then [the] people will not be unfeeling.

Brooks' Translation

"If the gentleman is dependable toward his kin, the people will be inspired to be rvn. If his old friends are not cast off, the people will not be unstable."

D. C. Lau's Translation

"When the gentleman feels profound affection for his parents, the common people will be stirred to benevolence. When he does not forget friends of long standing, the common people will not shirk their obligations to other people" [The Analects (New York, Penguin: 1979), p. 92].

David Hall and Roger Ames' Translation

"When the exemplary person treats his relatives with earnest affection, the masses will be aroused to authoritative humanity; when he does not abandon his old associates, the masses will be encouraged to pursue substantial relationships" [Thinking Through Confucius (Albany, SUNY Press: 1987), p. 143].

Questions

• What are the differences between ren, rvn, benevolence, and authoritative humanity?
• How about junzi, gentleman, and exemplary person?
• What other differences among the translations do you notice? What reasons might there be for preferring one translation to another?
• On what basis might the author of this claim be asserting it? What reasons are there for our believing it?
• Do those reasons depend on the audience to whom the claim is addressed?
• What should we make of reasons that the author probably did not have in mind, but which still support the claim?
• Are there any grounds on which we can criticize the implicit or explicit reasoning lying behind the claim?