Analects 7.17: 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 7.17
子所雅言、詩､書､執禮、皆雅言也。
The Master used formal speech for the Poems, the Documents, and the conduct of ritual. In all these, he spoke formally.
Commentary
translation Formal speech or frequent subjects? Reading 雅言 as formal or proper speech makes the saying about the language used for the Poems, the Documents, and ritual. Legge instead makes these the Master’s frequent subjects of discourse. The English chooses the first sense and retains the repeated 雅言, which marks all three occasions alike. The wording does not identify a particular dialect.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium