Analects 9.23: 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 9.23
子曰、法語之言、能無從乎、改之為貴、巽與之言、能無說乎、繹之為貴、說而不繹、從而不改、吾末如之何也已矣。
The Master said, “Can one fail to assent to words of correction? What matters is to change. Can one fail to be pleased by gentle words? What matters is to work out their meaning. To be pleased without working out the meaning, to assent without changing—I can do nothing with such a person.”
Commentary
ethics Agreement must become change The first kind of speech corrects; the second approaches gently. The Master asks for a response beyond what each easily produces: assent must become change, and pleasure must become an effort to draw out the meaning. 繹 suggests following something out, which gives the gentle words a claim on thought as well as feeling.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium