Quotation
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“Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.”
Confucius · Confucianism · Ancient · sayings collected after 479 BCE
Part of:Ancient questions, modern life →
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading takes the line as a negative guide: use your own dislikes as a check on what you hand to others, his version of what later ages compare with the Golden Rule. A competing reading says shu is narrower than a universal rule, because Confucian care is graded by relationship and role, not impartial in the Mohist sense. It is Analects 15.24, offered when Zigong asks for one word to guide conduct, and 12.2 is the parallel. The word he names is shu.
Did Confucius really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. A standard translation of the line Confucius offers when Zigong asks for a single word to guide conduct. The word is shu, often translated reciprocity or sympathetic understanding.
Where it comes from
Analects 15.24; compare 12.2
Approximate date: sayings collected after 479 BCE.
How to use it
Before you send the late-night email, set the deadline, or make the joke in the staff room, ask whether you would want it from someone in their chair, with their workload. Your dislike of being rushed is information. It is not yet a full account of what you owe a person whose role is not yours.
A mindset reading
Your dislikes are data, not a complete morality. He offers this as a thread that runs through the way, not as the whole of virtue. The habit is to run the imaginative check, and then to ask what the relationship still requires beyond the check.
Understand the philosophy
Confucius is answering a request to put conduct on a single thread. Shu, often translated reciprocity or sympathetic understanding, is that thread, and it sits beside ren, humaneness. The ethics is practised in ritual and in roles, not only in a private intention and not only in a sum of outcomes. Comparing it with Mozi's impartial care shows what this thread refuses to flatten.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading takes the line as a negative guide: use your own dislikes as a check on what you hand to others, his version of what later ages compare with the Golden Rule. A competing reading says shu is narrower than a universal rule, because Confucian care is graded by relationship and role, not impartial in the Mohist sense. It is Analects 15.24, offered when Zigong asks for one word to guide conduct, and 12.2 is the parallel. The word he names is shu.
Did Confucius really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. A standard translation of the line Confucius offers when Zigong asks for a single word to guide conduct. The word is shu, often translated reciprocity or sympathetic understanding.
Which work is it in?
Analects 15.24; compare 12.2 Approximate date: sayings collected after 479 BCE.