Analects 6.11: 雍也 (Yong Ye)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 6 asks how character becomes visible in governing, learning, giving, and answering other people. Judgments of practical ability sit beside a refusal of office. Yan Hui’s love of learning, steadiness in humaneness, and joy under hardship are framed by grief at his early death. The short sayings test relations between substance and refinement, knowledge and delight, reverence and distance. The closing exchange moves from the achievement of helping the people on a vast scale to a nearby method of humaneness: using one’s own desire for a firm footing and progress to help others find theirs.
Analects 6.11
子謂子夏曰、女為君子儒、無為小人儒。
The Master said to Zixia, “Be an exemplary scholar, not a petty one.”
Commentary
ethics Two kinds of scholar 儒 supplies the shared activity or vocation; 君子 and 小人 distinguish the kind of person who pursues it. The Master addresses Zixia directly and asks him to bring an exemplary character to his learning. Being a scholar alone does not settle that ethical distinction.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high