Analects 7.35: 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 7.35
子曰、奢則不孫、儉則固、與其不孫也、寧固。
The Master said, “Extravagance leads to arrogance; frugality leads to narrowness. Better narrowness than arrogance.”
Commentary
philology Choosing between two faults 不孫 is a failure of deference, rendered as arrogance. 固 can suggest rigidity or cramped narrowness; here it is the fault to which frugality can lead. The final 寧 makes a preference between the two failings, so the lesser fault remains a fault.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium