Analects 6.25: 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 6.25
子曰、君子博學於文、約之以禮、亦可以弗畔矣夫。
The Master said, “An exemplary person who learns widely from the cultural tradition and keeps within the bounds of ritual can avoid going astray.”
Commentary
ethics Breadth with bounds 博 gives learning breadth; 約 gives it restraint. 文 is the cultural tradition here, while ritual supplies the measure for conduct. The two clauses make broad learning and disciplined action cooperate in keeping the exemplary person from straying. This develops the earlier demand that refinement and substance belong together.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high