Analects 9.21: 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 9.21
子曰、苗而不秀者、有矣夫、秀而不實者、有矣夫。
The Master said, “There are plants that sprout but never flower, and plants that flower but never bear fruit.”
Commentary
ethics Growth can remain unfinished Sprouting, flowering, and bearing fruit are distinct stages. Reaching one does not guarantee reaching the next. Placed after the praise of a learner’s continued advance, the two failures make the incompleteness of growth visible without assigning a single cause to it.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium