Analects 7.13: 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 7.13
子在齊聞韶、三月不知肉味、曰、不圖為樂之至於斯也。
In Qi, the Master heard the Shao music and for three months did not notice the taste of meat. He said, “I never imagined music could reach such heights.”
Commentary
ethics Music displaces an ordinary pleasure The Shao is identified through the Master’s hearing of it in Qi. For three months, the taste of meat ceases to register. The closing exclamation interprets that absorption as a discovery of what music can achieve. The passage specifies the strength and duration of the experience without describing the performance itself.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high