Analects 7.5: 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 7.5
子曰、甚矣吾衰也、久矣、吾不復夢見周公。
The Master said, “How far I have declined! It has been so long since I dreamed of the Duke of Zhou.”
Commentary
ethics Loss measured by a dream The Master measures his decline by the long absence of a dream in which he sees the Duke of Zhou. The memory gives personal force to his attachment to the ancient tradition: what he loves has ceased to appear even in sleep.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium