Analects 9.4: 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 9.4
子絕四、毋意、毋必、毋固、毋我。
The Master was free of four things: preconceived judgments, insisting that things must be so, stubbornness, and putting himself first.
Commentary
ethics Freedom from fixed demands The four refusals move from preconceived judgments through insistence and stubbornness to putting oneself first. 毋必 concerns treating one outcome as necessary; 毋固 concerns holding fast regardless of what is encountered. The book later distinguishes standing firm from the further ability to weigh a situation.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: medium