Confucius Analects – Observing a person – 孔子论语 – 君子不以言舉人

15.8 Superior man is impartial, does not judge people merely by their speech or reputation

子曰、君子不以言舉人、不以人廢言。

The Master said, ‘The superior man does not promote a man simply on account of his words, nor does he put aside good words because of the man.’

-> Don’t promote a man just because of what he/she says, nor denouncement completely the speeches of a man because of his poor reputation.

1.1 Careful with fine words and insinuating appearance

子曰、巧言令色、鮮矣仁。

The Master said, ‘Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.’

-> Look at the TV commercials, all looks nice and sounds good.  How often do the actual products match?

2.5 Observing a man

子曰、視其所以。觀其所由。察其所 安。人焉廋哉、人焉廋哉。

The Master said, ‘See what a man does. Observe his motives. Examine in where he abides. How can a man conceal his character?

-> To supplement the limitation of our superficial reliance on speeches and sight, which could be trained and deceiving, observe a man all-roundly before making a judgement.

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Discussion:

Seek to look beyond words. Beautiful words and logical speeches are appealing, but could also be deceiving.  Therefore Confucius would not look highly of a man just because of his/her speeches, nor would he ignore completely what a person has to say just because he/she had been labelled ‘bad’.   Look at a person all-roundly, at his public and private life, his family, attitude, behaviors, in different situations, with different people, to have a good picture who the person is.  This helps us to understand others, and understand ourselves.

When looking at our own self.  Observe how your self appears and behaves in different situations.  How consistent is your self or selves?  Which self is you? And more ultimately, what are you?

15.8 子曰、君子不以言舉人、不以人廢言。

-> 不要仅仅因为一个人所说的话动听而看高他/她（有时候会华而不实），也不要完全不听名声差的人的话（因为偶然也可能会讲出一些有见地的话）。

1.1 子曰、巧言令色、鮮矣仁。

-> 看电视广告，一切看起来很好，听起来很不错。 但实际的产品都有多匹配？

2.5 子曰、視其所以。觀其所由。察其所 安。人焉廋哉、人焉廋哉。

-> 为了补充我们了解人时表面的不足，我们要全面的观察一个人，然后再作出判断。

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讨论：

寻求看穿表面的言语。美丽的词语和逻辑的演讲，也可能是不真实的。所以孔子不会仅仅因为的一个人的演讲而看起他/她，也不会完全忽略一个被标记为“坏”的人的话。了解他人时，我们要全面的看，看他的公共和私人生活，在不同场合和与不同的人看他的态度，思想，语言，和行为。这将有助于我们了解别人，和了解自己。

当您在看自己的时候。观察你的自己如何在不同的情况下出现和表现。自我的一致性如何？自我是你吗？推至最后，你是什么？