Analects 9.20: 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 9.20
子謂顏淵曰、惜乎、吾見其進也、未見其止也。
The Master said of Yan Yuan, “What a loss! I saw him advance; I never saw him stop.”
Commentary
ethics Progress remembered The regret in 惜 and the backward-looking “I saw” give the saying the force of a lament. Its praise is for continued advance, with no stopping point witnessed by the speaker. A death is not narrated in this section; the English “What a loss!” expresses the regret without supplying an account of what happened.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium