When Heaven Sends Orders

The Passages

Hover over (or tap on mobile) Chinese characters for definitions. Pinyin can be toggled in Settings.

6.10

9.1

Confucius visits his dying disciple 伯牛, one of the most virtuous men he taught, and clasps his hand through the window: this is Heaven's order, he says, for such a man to have such an illness. A separate line records that he rarely spoke of personal advantage, of Heaven's orders, or of human-heartedness. Together the two passages show what 命 meant, why it is the opposite of luck, and why there was so little to say about it.

Philosophical Discussion

The short version

Confucius rarely talked about 命, Heaven's orders, and 6.10 shows why. When a man as good as 伯牛 is dying of a horrible disease, there is no explanation to give. Heaven ordered it, you accept it, and there isn't much more to say.

命 is not luck

It's tempting to read 命 as fate or luck. The Confucian tradition treats it as close to the opposite of luck.

Two classic lines pin it down:

• Mencius 7A2: 知命者不立乎巖牆之下, someone who understands 命 doesn't stand under a tottering wall. Getting crushed by a wall you chose to stand under isn't Heaven's doing. It's yours.
• The 中庸: 君子居易以俟命，小人行險以徼幸, the gentleman lives on safe ground and waits on Heaven's orders; the petty person walks into danger and bets on luck.

A windfall you stumbled into by being reckless is luck too. Neither kind has anything to do with justice.

Why "orders"?

At bottom 命 is an order from someone above you: a father, a boss, a ruler. The king was 天子, the Son of Heaven, because Heaven was the only one who outranked him. So when something happens to you and no person ordered it, the order came from Heaven. That is the 命 in both passages, even though 6.10 never writes 天.

伯牛 is the test case

11.3 lists 伯牛 under 德行, virtuous conduct, alongside 顏淵. He did everything right and took no chances, and he was dying anyway. Rule out luck and one explanation is left, which is exactly what Confucius says at the window: 命矣夫. Heaven's reasons aren't given to us, so there's little to discuss. That's the "rarely" of 9.1 in action.

Three topics, three reasons

The standard explanation of 9.1 is one line from 程頤, adopted by 朱熹: 計利則害義，命之理微，仁之道大.

• 利, personal advantage: chasing it harms what's right, so steer clear (Episode 15).
• 命, Heaven's orders: the principle is too subtle to talk about loosely.
• 仁, human-heartedness: the Way is too big to sum up (Episode 23).

Does 9.1 even say "rarely"?

Here's the catch. 仁 is everywhere in the Analects: 109 times, in 59 passages. (利 shows up in just 9.) So commentators have tried to rescue 9.1 by rereading nearly every word in it.

• 罕 occurs only here in the whole Analects, which leaves room to argue. 黃式三's evidence is a family name: the Zheng ministers 鄭罕虎 and 鄭罕達 are written with 軒 in the Gongyang text, and the two words sounded alike. Slingerland's "The Master openly expressed his views on…" has made this lone reading the one many English readers meet first.
• 言: 程樹德 says Confucius rarely raised 仁 himself, and most of what the Analects has on it are answers to his disciples' questions.
• 與: "siding with" works for people and actions ("I'm with Dian"), not for topics. 焦循 made the same objection to 史繩祖.

Bottom line: 9.1 is a list of three things Confucius rarely talked about.

Context and Connections

伯牛

伯牛 is the courtesy name of the disciple 冉耕, traditionally of the same clan as 冉雍, the subject of Episode 6. The Analects only says he had a 疾. The 史記 calls it 惡疾, a foul disease, and the 淮南子 says 冉伯牛為厲, read as leprosy. 朱熹 passes that on as the standard view: 先儒以為癩也.

Why the window?

Two classic answers:

• 包咸 (Han): 伯牛 didn't want to be seen, so Confucius reached in from outside.
• 朱熹 (Song): the sick lay by the north wall, and a visiting ruler had them moved under the south window so he could face south. 伯牛's family gave Confucius that honor; he wouldn't take a ruler's place, stayed outside, and took his hand through the window.

Either way it's a gesture of respect and affection, not the point of the passage.

Who's who

• 伯牛 — 冉耕, disciple, listed for virtuous conduct in 11.3
• 冉雍 — 仲弓, of the same clan; Episode 6
• 程頤 — 1033–1107, Song philosopher
• 朱熹 — 1130–1200, author of the 論語集注
• 孟子 — Mencius, c. 372–289 BCE
• 包咸 — 6 BCE–65 CE, Han commentator
• 史繩祖 — 1192–1274, Song scholar, author of the 學齋佔畢
• 焦循 — 1763–1820, Qing scholar, author of the 論語補疏
• 黃式三 — 1789–1862, Qing scholar, author of the 論語後案
• 程樹德 — 1877–1944, compiler of the 論語集釋
• Edward Slingerland — translator of the Analects (2003)

Related passages

• 11.3 — the four kinds of disciples, with 伯牛 under virtuous conduct
• 11.26 — 吾與點也, the 與 that sides with someone
• 6.1 — 冉雍, from Episode 6
• 4.12, 4.16 — personal advantage, from Episode 15
• 4.3, 4.4 — human-heartedness, from Episode 23

Language Notes

6.10 — 伯牛有疾，子問之，自牖執其手，曰：「亡之，命矣夫！斯人也而有斯疾也！斯人也而有斯疾也！」

Boniu — have — illness; Master — visit — him; through — window — grasp — his — hand; say: "Lose — him; ordered — (done) — oh! This — man — and yet — have — this — illness!"

• 伯牛 — 伯 marks the eldest son. 牛, ox, goes with his personal name 耕, to plow.
• 疾 — illness. Inside the sickbed component sits 矢, an arrow: it started out meaning a wound. Modern 疾病, disease.
• 問 — to call on, not to ask. Compare 問候, to send your regards.
• 自牖 — through the window. 自 as in modern 自從, ever since; 牖 is only literary today.
• 執 — to grasp, as in 執行, to carry out.
• 亡之 — "losing him": 亡, to lose, and 之, him.
• 命 — no 天 needed. No person ordered this.
• 矣夫 — 矣 marks a change that has happened, much like 了, hence "heaven has ordered this"; 夫 is an exclamation, "oh."
• 斯人也而有斯疾也 — 斯, "this," becomes "such" with all that feeling behind it. The first 也 makes 斯人 the topic, 而 turns against it ("and yet"), and the last 也 is the exclamation point.