Analects 9.6: 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 9.6
大宰問於子貢、曰、夫子聖者與、何其多能也。子貢曰、固天縱之將聖、又多能也。子聞之曰、大宰知我乎、吾少也賤、故多能、鄙事、君子多乎哉、不多也。牢曰、子云、吾不試、故藝。
A chief minister asked Zigong, “Is your Master a sage? How is he able to do so many things?” Zigong said, “Heaven has certainly endowed him: he is almost a sage, and he also has many skills.” When the Master heard this, he said, “Does the chief minister understand me? My station was low when I was young, so I learned to do many menial tasks. Must an exemplary person have many skills? No.” Lao said, “The Master said, ‘I was not employed, so I learned skills.’”
Commentary
ethics Skills and sagehood The chief minister asks Zigong whether the Master’s many abilities show that he is a sage. The Master explains those abilities through his low station when young, separating practical necessity from exemplary character. Lao then reports a related saying about acquiring skills without employment.
Basis: textual-inference
Confidence: high
translation Almost a sage 將聖 is compressed. “Almost a sage” takes 將 as approaching sagehood, as Legge’s rendering does; taking it as an intensifier instead would yield “a great sage.” Either reading keeps Zigong’s claim of an endowment from Heaven distinct from the Master’s account of how he acquired practical skills. The closing 不試 in Lao’s report is read as not being employed or put to use.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium