Analects 7.23: 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 7.23
子曰、二三子、以我為隱乎、吾無隱乎爾、吾無行而不與二三子者、是丘也、
The Master said, “You students, do you think I hide anything from you? I hide nothing from you. There is nothing I do that I do not share with you. That is who I am.”
Commentary
ethics Teaching visible in conduct The Master answers the suspicion of concealment by pointing to what he does and shares with his students. 行 makes conduct part of the answer. In 是丘也 he uses 丘, Qiu, for himself. “That is who I am” keeps this self-identification in the first person and identifies him with the openness he has described.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium