Analects 9.16: 子罕 (Zi Han)
Confucius and his disciples · Classical Chinese original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Book 9 presents the Master through questions about his learning, skills, character, and place in the cultural tradition. His own accounts of ordinary work and unfinished attainment stand beside his students’ admiration. Ritual decisions distinguish useful change from arrogant display, while the jade exchange joins willingness to serve with waiting for someone who recognizes worth. Images of flowing water, earthworks, growing plants, and winter trees give passing time, effort, and tested character concrete form. Praise of learners sits beside regret and warnings about unfinished growth. The later sayings ask for correction, resolve, and the ability to weigh circumstances after learning to stand firm.
Analects 9.16
子在川上曰、逝者如斯夫、不舍晝夜。
The Master stood beside a river and said, “What passes is like this—never stopping, day or night!”
Commentary
philology What passes 逝者 means what goes or passes. The saying names no single subject such as time, a human life, or the world. The river supplies the image of movement continuing through day and night. Keeping “what passes” lets that image reach beyond the water without assigning it one fixed object.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium