Confucius souhaite qu’on résiste à ce qu’il dit
11.4 The Master said, Hui is of no help to me. There is nothing in my words that fails to please him.
Mais si Hui ne contredit pas, il n’en pense pas moins
Comme l’autocontradiction, la contradiction interpersonnelle exige une clarification. Le désaccord stimule l’échange et l’activité intellectuelle,
The Master said: I can speak with Hui all day and he will never contradict me, like a dolt. But after he withdraws, when I survey his personal conduct, indeed he is ready to go forth. He’s no dolt! (Id. , 2.9)
Confucius dit implicitement qu’il préfère le désaccord, “Hui ne me contredit jamais, comme un imbécile” — donc les imbéciles ne contredisent jamais leur maître, et c’est cette inférence implicite qui nous intéresse. Mais, en ce qui concerne Hui, cette première conclusion, tirée du comportement verbal de Hui est renversée par une constatation décisive, d’un ordre supérieur, tirée de l’observation de sa conduite. Hui est le disciple préféré de Confucius, et sa mort le plongera dans le désarroi le plus profond (Id. 11.8-11)
Zilu fait face au maître
Apprendre dans les livres, Bien se comporter: l’accord
Ad hominem refutation always requires a certain amount of editing of the target’s words or words and actions. For example, it is always unpleasant for a master to be critically confronted with his own teaching. In passages 1.6 and 1.7 of the Confucius Analects, the scholar is characterised by his correct behaviour towards worthy people, his parents, people in general, his masters (those who are ren), and seems to attach only secondary importance to knowledge of the texts.
1.6. The Master said: A young man should be filial within his home and respectful of elders when outside, should be careful and trustworthy, broadly caring of people at large, and should cleave to those who are ren. If he has energy left over, he may study the refinements of culture (wen).
Zixia, a disciple of Confucius, offers a definition of a scholar along the same lines, though perhaps less categorically,
1.7. Zixia said: If a person treats worthy people as worthy and so alters his expression, exerts all his effort when serving his parents, exhausts himself when serving his lord, and is trustworthy in keeping his word when in the company of friends, though others may say he is not yet learned, I would call him learned.
AnalectsEno, 1.6-7
Zilu fait face au maître
In another passage, Zilu, one of Confucius’ disciples, has just hired another of his disciples, Zigao. Confucius seems to reproach him for this:
Zilu appointed Zigao to be the steward of Bi. The Master said, “You are stealing another man’s son!”
Zilu said, “There are people there; there are altars of state there – why must one first read texts and only then be considered learned?”
The Master said, “This is why I detest glib talkers!”
AnalectsEno, 1, 25
The Master seems to take offence at Zilu’s repartee.
Again, R. Eno’s note clarifies the passage by relating it to an earlier passage,
Note Eno : Zilu seems to be invoking lessons Confucius himself taught, much like the ideas in 1.6-7, to confound Confucius himself, which is the basis of Confucius’s answer.
En effet, en 11, 25 Zilu lui rappelle qu’il a dit qu’un comportement parfaitement réglé vis à vis des personnes de référence – parents, Seigneur, amis – suffisait pour que quelqu’un soit reconnu comme « a learned [person] », et traité comme tel, par exemple en recevant un emploi. Zilu se défend ainsi de lui avoir “volé Zigao”, ou défend la décision de Zigao.
This contradiction is just one way of exercising the right of admonition, which is the counterpart of the right and duty of obedience to the ruler and the father.
_______________
[1] Leslie, Donald, 1964. Argument by Contradiction in Pre-Buddhist Chinese Reasoning. Faculty of Asian Studies, ANU., Canberra.