Analects 9.2: 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 9.2
達巷黨人曰、大哉孔子、搏學而無所成名。子聞之、謂門弟子曰、吾何執、執御乎、執射乎、吾執御矣。
A man from the Daxiang neighborhood said, “Great indeed is Confucius! Such broad learning, yet no single accomplishment has made his name.” Hearing this, the Master said to his students, “What should I take up? Charioteering? Archery? I will take up charioteering.”
Commentary
source variant Broad learning The Chinese here prints 搏學. The Chinese Wikisource text has 博學, “broad learning,” which also matches Legge’s English. “Broad learning” follows that reading while leaving the printed 搏 visible. The speaker praises a breadth that has not become fame in one particular accomplishment.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: medium
ethics Fame in a single skill The man from Daxiang measures Confucius against a named accomplishment. The Master’s answer turns that measure into a choice between practical skills. Read as a dry joke, his decision to take up charioteering exposes the narrowness of expecting one specialty to account for all that learning.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium