Analects 9.28: 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 9.28
子曰、知者不惑、仁者不憂、勇者不懼。
The Master said, “The wise are free of confusion; the humane, of worry; the courageous, of fear.”
Commentary
ethics Three qualities, three freedoms The parallel clauses keep wisdom, humaneness, and courage distinct. Each addresses a different impediment: confusion, worry, or fear. 仁 therefore remains “humaneness,” rather than absorbing all three into a single category of virtue. The saying presents a compact ideal of character.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high