Analects 4.7 · Li Ren
“People’s faults vary with the kind of person they are. By observing a person’s faults, you can understand that person’s degree of humaneness.”
Meaning, context, and how to apply it today
人之過也 各於其黨 觀過斯知仁矣 (rén zhī guò yě, gè yú qí dǎng, guān guò sī zhī rén yǐ) means “People’s faults vary with the kind of person they are. By observing a person’s faults, you can understand that person’s degree of humaneness.” It is a passage from the Analects of Confucius, Book 4 (Li Ren), Chapter 7.
人之過也 各於其黨 觀過斯知仁矣
- Pinyin
- rén zhī guò yě, gè yú qí dǎng, guān guò sī zhī rén yǐ
- Translation
- People’s faults vary with the kind of person they are. By observing a person’s faults, you can understand that person’s degree of humaneness.
- Source
- Analects, Book 4 (Li Ren), Chapter 7
What does this passage mean?
This passage from the Li Ren chapter offers the distinctive view that a person's mistakes can reveal that person. 過 means a mistake or fault, and 黨 means a category or type. A person's character and values are reflected in the errors that person makes. A humane person's mistakes arise from excessive generosity; a courageous person's, from excessive boldness. Confucius believed that the nature of a mistake, more than the bare fact that it occurred, can disclose the person's essential character.
How can we apply it today?
Everyone makes mistakes, but the kinds of mistakes we make reveal who we are. Someone who errs by trusting others too much is fundamentally different from someone whose attempt to exploit others goes wrong. At work, an employee who makes a mistake through overflowing initiative should be judged differently from one who errs through laziness. Wisdom means looking beyond condemnation of the error itself and learning to read the person's underlying character within it.
Questions to reflect on
- ·Where do my mistakes most often come from?
- ·When another person errs, have I ever tried to discern that person's underlying character within the mistake?
- ·What can the pattern of my faults teach me about myself?
Character-by-character breakdown
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Strokes | Radical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 人 | rén | person | 2 | 人 (person) |
| 之 | zhī | go; possessive particle | 4 | 丿 (slash) |
| 過 | guò | pass | 12 | 辵 (walk) |
| 也 | yě | grammatical particle | 3 | 乙 (second) |
| 各 | gè | each | 6 | 口 (mouth) |
| 於 | yú | at; in | 8 | 方 (square) |
| 其 | qí | that; he | 8 | 八 (eight) |
| 黨 | dǎng | category; type | 20 | 黑 (black) |
| 觀 | guān | see | 25 | 見 (see) |
| 過 | guò | fault | 12 | 辵 (walk) |
| 斯 | sī | this | 12 | 斤 (axe) |
| 知 | zhī | know | 8 | 矢 (arrow) |
| 仁 | rén | benevolent | 4 | 人 (person) |
| 矣 | yǐ | grammatical particle | 7 | 矢 (arrow) |
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does “People’s faults vary with the kind of…” mean?
人之過也 各於其黨 觀過斯知仁矣 (rén zhī guò yě, gè yú qí dǎng, guān guò sī zhī rén yǐ) means “People’s faults vary with the kind of person they are. By observing a person’s faults, you can understand that person’s degree of humaneness.” It comes from the Analects, Book 4 (Li Ren), Chapter 7.
Q. Where does this passage appear in the Analects?
It is Analects 4.7: Book 4 (Li Ren), Chapter 7.
Q. How can this teaching be applied today?
Everyone makes mistakes, but the kinds of mistakes we make reveal who we are.