Analects 16.9: 季氏 (Ji Shi)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 16 opens with a threatened attack and a sustained argument about responsibility: ministers cannot excuse their part in a policy simply by saying their lord wants it. Two sayings then trace political authority as it passes into lower hands. Lists of friends, pleasures, errors, dangers, and concerns bring questions of judgment into ordinary conduct. Learning remains possible under difficulty, while words must be tested against lives actually seen. Wealth and lasting praise diverge in the contrast between a duke and two hungry men. A son’s account of learning the Poems and ritual makes the absence of special treatment itself a lesson. The book closes with the different titles used for a ruler’s wife, giving speech a precise place within social relations.
Analects 16.9
孔子曰、生而知之者、上也、學而知之者、次也、困而學之、又其次也、困而不學、民斯為下矣。
Confucius said, “Those born with knowledge rank highest; those who learn and come to know rank next; those who meet difficulty and then learn come next after them. Those who meet difficulty and still do not learn are the lowest among the people.”
Commentary
translation Learning after difficulty 困 means being pressed, obstructed, or at a loss. Legge makes the last two classes intellectually deficient; “meet difficulty” keeps the range wider. The saying still ranks those who learn only when pressed below those who learn without that pressure. Its lowest place belongs to those who do not learn even then.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium