Analects 6.18: 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 6.18
子曰、知之者、不如好之者、好之者、不如樂之者。
The Master said, “Those who know it do not equal those who love it; those who love it do not equal those who delight in it.”
Commentary
translation The object left unnamed The repeated 之 means “it”; the saying does not name its object. Legge supplies “the truth.” Keeping the pronoun lets the progression itself carry the point: knowing, loving, and finding joy in the same pursuit are distinct relations to it. The repeated joy also recalls Hui’s joy amid poverty.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: high