"The Analects" Detailed Explanation: For All Those Who Misinterpret Confucius (67)

2007/8/20 22:36:24

The Master said: The gentleman is enlightened by righteousness; the petty man is enlightened by profit.

Yang Bojun: Confucius said: "The gentleman understands righteousness, the petty man understands profit."

Qian Mu: The Master said: "What the gentleman comprehends lies in righteousness, what the petty man comprehends lies in profit."

Li Zehou: Confucius said: "The gentleman understands propriety, the petty man understands gain and loss."

Detailed Explanation: Though this sentence is simple, throughout the ages the translations have been fraught with problems. According to the three interpretations above, a gentleman who doesn't even understand or comprehend profit and self-interest is nothing but a bookworm. And for the ruling classes who used a disfigured version of The Analects to enslave the people, such so-called gentlemen who understood neither gain nor loss were naturally the best slaves. For two thousand years in China, countless slaves were produced precisely this way.

As for the petty man, has he ever truly understood gain and loss, profit and interest? Profit and gain, advantage and disadvantage — one must trace them to their very roots, and only someone with a profound understanding of the entire society and the operation of its various systems could possibly have even a slight grasp of such things. Otherwise, one is merely a pawn manipulated on the machine of profit, mere cannon fodder in the wars of interest.

What is a petty man? First and foremost, he is a person — merely one who draws a circle around himself as a prison, making himself small. And the ordinary so-called "people," manipulated by the social machinery within social structures, all their knowledge and concepts are merely assembled from so-called "common sense" and "self-evident truths." Here one can say without the slightest reservation that in Confucius's eyes, ordinary so-called people don't even qualify as petty men — they are merely imitation humans, puppets and nothing more.

"於" (yú) here means "by," and the subsequent "义" (righteousness) and "利" (profit) are the active agents of "喻" (enlightenment/understanding). Whether "gentleman" or "petty man," their "understanding" does not come from nowhere — it arises because they are drawn along by the forces of "righteousness" and "profit" respectively. Without "righteousness" and "profit," without the social structure itself, the so-called "understanding" of "gentlemen" and "petty men" would be nothing but nonsense. What does "喻" mean? To enlighten, to guide.

The meaning of this chapter is: "The gentleman is enlightened by righteousness; the petty man is enlightened by profit." Then what is "righteousness" and what is "profit"? "Profit" refers to the real social structures composed of interests and relationships of gain and loss, along with their corresponding set of real operating mechanisms. "Righteousness" refers to the moral codes, laws, and other normative standards corresponding to these various real structures.

The petty man, through participating in the real operations of the web of interests, is enlightened by the latent forces within that web, coming to understand its mechanisms and structures, thereby navigating it with consummate ease and obtaining great profit from it. As the saying goes: stealing wealth without leaving a trace of theft, stealing fame while leaving one's name for all eternity, stealing a nation and becoming that nation's sage — only then can one be worthy of being called a petty man.

The gentleman must first become a petty man. The gentleman is achieved through the petty man; a gentleman who has not first become a petty man is nothing but a confused fool. One who is confused about "profit" cannot become a petty man, much less a gentleman. The "gentleman" can navigate freely within the web of interests, and moreover is enlightened by the moral codes, laws, and normative standards corresponding to real structures — knowing the times, following the times, acting according to the times, and transforming the times. Not fixating on appearances, transforming poison into ambrosia, transforming the earth into gold, "unknown by others" yet "unperturbed by others' ignorance" — this is the true conduct of a gentleman.

The petty man, though navigating the web of interests with consummate ease, because he draws a circle around himself as a prison, making himself small, pulled along by a single "self," ultimately remains nothing but a mechanical puppet. In the end, undone by his own cleverness, it is all just a game, a dream and nothing more. The gentleman, however, knows everything the petty man knows, does what the petty man does yet without being pulled by any "self," neither abolishing a single method while practicing ten thousand methods, practicing ten thousand methods while establishing none — at ease in all he knows and does.

Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán's Vernacular Translation

子曰：君子喻於义，小人喻於利。

Confucius said: "The gentleman is enlightened by the forces hidden within the web of relationships formed by various real social structures and their corresponding moral codes, laws, and normative standards; the petty man is enlightened by the forces hidden within the web of relationships formed by the real social structures composed of interests and relationships of gain and loss, along with their corresponding set of real operating mechanisms."