Analects 10.17 · Xiang Dang
“The stable burned down. Returning from court, the Master asked, ‘Was anyone hurt?’ He did not ask about the horses.”
Meaning, context, and how to apply it today
廐焚 子退朝曰 傷人乎 不問馬 (jiù fén, zǐ tuì cháo yuē, shāng rén hū, bù wèn mǎ) means “The stable burned down. Returning from court, the Master asked, ‘Was anyone hurt?’ He did not ask about the horses.” It is a passage from the Analects of Confucius, Book 10 (Xiang Dang), Chapter 17.
廐焚 子退朝曰 傷人乎 不問馬
- Pinyin
- jiù fén, zǐ tuì cháo yuē, shāng rén hū, bù wèn mǎ
- Translation
- The stable burned down. Returning from court, the Master asked, ‘Was anyone hurt?’ He did not ask about the horses.
- Source
- Analects, Book 10 (Xiang Dang), Chapter 17
What does this passage mean?
This episode comes from the seventeenth chapter of Xiang Dang. The stable at Confucius’s house burned down. Returning from court, Confucius asked only whether anyone had been hurt; he did not ask about the horses. Horses were expensive property at the time, while those who worked in the stables were servants of low status. This brief scene, in which he asked after people’s safety before any loss of property, shows what Confucius meant by humaneness more clearly than any long explanation. The disciples recorded it because they saw that the first words that come out unbidden in an emergency reveal a person’s true values.
How can we apply it today?
What a person or an organization asks first in a crisis reveals their real heart. When an accident happens, is the first question ‘Is anyone hurt?’ or ‘How much did we lose?’ When a server goes down, some leaders ask whether the engineer is all right before assigning blame, and others ask for the revenue figures first. Not a prepared statement but the reflexive first words are the evidence of character. Confucius’s single question is remembered 2,500 years later. The first question we ask in an emergency will also be remembered by someone for a long time.
Questions to reflect on
- ·What do you ask first in a crisis?
- ·Have you ever put people before property or results?
- ·What values do your reflexive first words reveal?
Character-by-character breakdown
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Strokes | Radical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 廐 | jiù | stable | 14 | 广 (dotted cliff) |
| 焚 | fén | burn | 12 | 火 (fire) |
| 子 | zǐ | teacher | 3 | 子 (child) |
| 退 | tuì | withdraw | 10 | 辵 (walk) |
| 朝 | cháo | court | 12 | 月 (moon) |
| 曰 | yuē | speak | 4 | 曰 (say) |
| 傷 | shāng | be harmed | 13 | 人 (person) |
| 人 | rén | person | 2 | 人 (person) |
| 乎 | hū | grammatical particle | 5 | 丿 (slash) |
| 不 | bù | not | 4 | 一 (one) |
| 問 | wèn | ask | 11 | 口 (mouth) |
| 馬 | mǎ | horse | 10 | 馬 (horse) |
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does “The stable burned down. Returning from…” mean?
廐焚 子退朝曰 傷人乎 不問馬 (jiù fén, zǐ tuì cháo yuē, shāng rén hū, bù wèn mǎ) means “The stable burned down. Returning from court, the Master asked, ‘Was anyone hurt?’ He did not ask about the horses.” It comes from the Analects, Book 10 (Xiang Dang), Chapter 17.
Q. Where does this passage appear in the Analects?
It is Analects 10.17: Book 10 (Xiang Dang), Chapter 17.
Q. How can this teaching be applied today?
What a person or an organization asks first in a crisis reveals their real heart.When an accident happens, is the first question ‘Is anyone hurt?’ or ‘How much did we lose?