Analects 6.5: 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 6.5
子曰、回也、其心三月不違仁、其餘、則日月至焉而已矣。
The Master said, “Hui’s heart did not depart from humaneness for three months at a stretch. The others reach it only for a day or a month.”
Commentary
translation Remaining and arriving Hui’s heart does not depart from humaneness; others only reach it. That difference between sustained presence and intermittent attainment governs the saying. The translation takes 日月 as a day or a month of attainment. Legge instead emphasizes reaching it on some days or in some months. Both readings contrast Hui’s continuity with the others’ uncertain hold.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium