Analects 8.12: 泰伯 (Tai Bo)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 8 places personal conduct beside the use and relinquishment of power. Taibo’s yielding opens the book; praise of Shun, Yu, Yao, and Zhou closes it. Between these stands a sequence in Master Zeng’s voice, beginning in illness and extending to the lifelong burden of humaneness. Ritual gives qualities their measure, while poetry and music form a person’s response. Learning is tested against talent, salary, public service, and withdrawal. The book ends with Yu’s choices: little for personal comfort, full care for ritual and waterworks.
Analects 8.12
子曰、三年學、不至於穀、不易得也。
The Master said, “Someone who studies for three years without turning their thoughts to a salary is hard to find.”
Commentary
philology Learning and the thought of a salary 穀 means grain and can stand for an official salary, as in the saying about shame and salary at 14.1. “Turning their thoughts” takes 至, reaching, as the direction of a learner’s attention. This reads the rarity as sustained learning without an eye to pay. Taking 至 as actual arrival would instead make it rare to study so long without obtaining a post. Legge takes 穀 as goodness and makes the rarity failure to become good after study. These readings give the saying substantially different force.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium