Analects 9.7: 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 9.7
子曰、吾有知乎哉、無知也、有鄙夫問於我、空空如也、我叩其兩端而竭焉。
The Master said, “Do I possess knowledge? I have none. When a man of humble station asks me something, I am quite empty. I probe the matter from both ends and pursue it to the limit.”
Commentary
translation Who is empty? 空空如也 leaves its subject unexpressed. Legge attaches the emptiness to the questioner. The translation instead takes it as the Master’s lack of a ready answer, continuing his opening denial of knowledge. On this reading knowledge emerges through inquiry. “Both ends” gives the breadth of the examination; the words do not specify a particular pair of opposing answers.
Basis: translation-comparison
Confidence: medium