Analects 7.11: 述而 (Shu Er)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 7 builds a portrait of the Master through self-descriptions, conversations, and observations of his conduct. He loves the ancient tradition, learns through sustained attention, and teaches by asking learners to carry an indication further. Music, mourning, plain food, and illness show how these commitments enter daily life. Political judgment calls for knowing when to act or withdraw and for accepting criticism. Repeated disclaimers about his own attainment sit beside confidence in Heaven and the nearness of humaneness. The closing portrait holds warmth, firmness, respect, and ease together.
Analects 7.11
子曰、富而可求也、雖執鞭之士、吾亦為之、如不可求、從吾所好。
The Master said, “If wealth could be secured by pursuing it, I would do even a whip-holder’s work. If it cannot, I will follow what I love.”
Commentary
translation What could make the pursuit of wealth worthwhile? Legge takes 可求 as the prospect of securing wealth by pursuing it. The English follows that possibility reading. 可 can also carry the sense of permission or fitness, which would make the condition whether wealth may rightly be sought. The later saying about wealth gained by wrongdoing makes that alternative pertinent. “Whip-holder” preserves the named work without specifying Legge’s occupation of groom.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium