Analects 9.26: 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 9.26
子曰、衣敝縕袍、與衣孤貉者立、而不恥者、其由也與。不忮不求、何用不臧。子路終身誦之、子曰、是道也、何足以臧。
The Master said, “The one who can stand in a worn padded robe beside people in fox and raccoon-dog furs, feeling no shame—that must be You. ‘Neither malicious nor grasping—how could one fail to be good?’” Zilu kept reciting these words throughout his life. The Master said, “How could this way alone be enough for goodness?”
Commentary
source variant The fur garment The Chinese here prints 孤, “alone,” where the Chinese Wikisource text has 狐, “fox.” The English follows the fur reading in 狐貉; Legge likewise renders the clothing as furs. The contrast is between a worn padded robe and costly fur garments, and the person praised feels no shame beside those wearing them.
Basis: sourced
Confidence: medium
ethics Praise is a starting point The Master praises You’s freedom from shame over his clothing. The quoted lines extend that praise to freedom from malice and grasping. Zilu’s repetition is met by a further demand: those qualities alone do not complete goodness. The reply carries learning beyond resting in a favorable judgment.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium
philology A lifetime of reciting 終身 ordinarily means “throughout one’s life,” and the English keeps that span. Legge renders it as continual repetition. The narrated habit and the Master’s reply need not be successive events at the end of a life; the text places an enduring attachment to the words beside the challenge to go further. You in the speech and Zilu in the narration refer to the same person.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium