Analects 1.7: 學而 (Xue Er)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 1 presents learning as a way of acting with others: practicing what one learns, serving parents, keeping faith with friends, governing with care, and accepting correction. Its voices return to the relation between inward character and outward conduct. Devotion to parents and respect for elder brothers are called the root of practicing humaneness; ritual gives harmony its measure. The dialogue about poverty, wealth, and poetry shows a learner carrying a lesson further. The book begins with bearing a lack of recognition and ends by asking whether we know other people.
Analects 1.7
子夏曰、賢賢易色、事父母、能竭其力、事君、能致其身、與朋友交、言而有信、雖曰未學、吾必謂之學矣。
Zixia said, “Someone who values worthy people above beauty, serves parents with all their strength, gives themselves wholly to a ruler’s service, and keeps their word with friends—even if others say this person has not learned, I would certainly say they have.”
Commentary
philology What takes the place of beauty? In 賢賢, the first 賢 is an act of valuing and the second points to the worthy. 易色 can suggest redirecting a preference for beauty; 色 can also refer to one’s expression or demeanor. “Above beauty” takes the clause as a change in what one values. The following series—parents, ruler, friends—also suggests a possible opening relation between spouses: valuing a spouse’s worth above appearance.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
ethics Learning made visible Zixia offers his own judgment of what counts as learning: it appears in how a person serves parents and a ruler and speaks to friends. His final reversal locates learning in demonstrated conduct even where recognized study is lacking. Giving one’s whole person to a ruler makes this a demanding account of service.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high