Confucius
(552 – 479 BC)
The Analects
(extracts on education)
Book I
1. The Master said, “Having
studied, to then repeatedly apply what you have learned – is this not a source
of pleasure? To have friends come from distant quarters – is this not a source
of enjoyment? To go unacknowledged by others without harboring frustration – is
this not the mark of an exemplary person?
4. Master Zeng
said, “Every day I examine my person on three counts. In my undertakings on behalf
of other people, have I failed to do my utmost? (zhong) In
my interactions with colleagues and friends have I failed to make good on my
word? (xin)
In what has been passed on to me, have I failed to carry it into practice?
7. Zixia
said, “As for persons who care for character much more than beauty, who in
serving their parents are able to exert themselves utterly, who give their
whole person in the service of their ruler, and who, in interactions with
colleagues and friends, make good on their word (xin) – even if it were said of
such persons that they are unschooled, I would insist that they are well
educated indeed."
8. The Master said, . . . “Exemplary persons (junzi) lacking in gravity would
have no dignity. Yet in their studies they are not inflexible. Take doing your
utmost and making good on your word (xin) as your mainstay. . . . And where you have erred, do
not hesitate to mend your ways."
Book II
9. The Master said, “I can
speak with Yan Hui for an
entire day without his raising an objection, as though he were slow. But when he
has withdrawn and I examine what he says and does on his own, it illustrates
perfectly what I have been saying. Indeed there is nothing slow about Yan Hui.”
11. The Master said, “Reviewing
the old as a means of realizing the new – such a person can be considered a
teacher.”
15. The Master said, “Learning
without due reflection leads to perplexity; reflection without learning leads
to perilous circumstances.”
17. The Master said, “Zilu, shall I teach you what wisdom (zhi) means?" To know (zhi) what you know
and know what you do not know – this then is wisdom.”
18. Zizhang
was studying in order to take office. The Master said: "If you listen
broadly, set aside what you are unsure of, and speak cautiously on the rest,
you will make few errors; if you look broadly, set aside what is perilous, and
act cautiously on the rest, you will have few regrets. To speak with few errors
and to act with few regrets is the substance of taking office.”
Book III
15. The Master on entering
the Grand Ancestral Hall asked questions about everything. Someone remarked:
Who said this son of a man from Zou village knows
about observing ritual propriety (li)?. On entering the Grand
Ancestral Hall he asks questions about everything."
When Confucius heard of this, he said:
"To do so is itself observing ritual
propriety."
Book IV
14. The Master said, “Do not
worry over not having an official position; worry about what it takes to have
one. Do not worry that no one acknowledges you; seek to do what will earn you
acknowledgement.”
15. The Master said, “Zeng, my friend! My way (dao) is bound together with one
continuous strand."
Master Zeng
replied, "Indeed."
When the Master had left, the disciples
asked, “What was he referring to?”
Master Zeng
said, “The way of the Master is doing one’s utmost (zhong) and putting oneself in the
other's place, nothing more.”
16. The Master said, “Exemplary
persons (junzi)
understands what is appropriate (yi); petty persons
understand what is of personal advantage.”
Book V
5. Someone said, “As for
Yong, he is an authoritative person (ren) but is not eloquent." The Master said, “What is the
use of eloquence? A person who disputes with a ready wit often earns the enmity
of others. I cannot say whether or not he is an authoritative person, but what
need is there for eloquence?”
9. The Master remarked to
14. When Zilu
had learned something but had not yet been able to act upon it,
his only fear was that he would learn something more."
15.
Book VI
3. Duke Ai inquired,
"Which of your disciples truly loves learning (haoxue)?"
Confucius replied, "There was one Yan Hui who truly loved learning.
He did not take his anger out on others; he did not make the same mistake
twice. Unfortunately, he was to die young. Nowadays, there is no one – at
least, I haven't come across anyone – who truly loves learning.”
11. The Master said, “A person of character (xian) is this Yan Hui! He has a bamboo bowl of
rice to eat, a gourd of water to drink, and a dirty little hovel in which to
live. Other people would not be able to endure his hardships, yet for Hui it has no effect on his enjoyment. A person of
character is this Yan Hui!”
18. The Master said, “When
one's basic disposition (zhi)
overwhelms refinement (wen),
the person is boorish; when refinement overwhelms one's basic disposition, the
person is an officious scribe. It is only when one's basic disposition and
refinement are in appropriate balance that you have the exemplary person.”
20. The Master said, “To truly love it is better than just to understand it, and
to enjoy it is better than simply to love it.”
21. The Master said, “You can
acquaint those above the common lot with higher things, but you cannot acquaint
those below the common lot with them.”
Book VII
3. The Master said, “To fail
to cultivate excellence (de), to fail
to practice what I learn, on coming to understand what is appropriate (yi) in the
circumstances to fail to attend to it, and to be unable to reform conduct that
is not productive – these things I worry over.”
7. The Master said, “I have
never failed to instruct students who, using their own resources, could only
afford a gift of dried meat.”
8. The Master said, “I do not
open the way for students who are not driven with eagerness; I do not supply a
vocabulary for students who are not trying desperately to find the language for
their ideas. If on showing students one corner they do not come back to me with
the other three, I will not repeat myself.”
16. The Master said, “To eat
coarse food, drink plain water, and pillow oneself on a bent arm – there is
pleasure to be found in these things. But wealth and position gained through
inappropriate (buyi)
means – these are to me like floating clouds.”
17. The Master said, “Let me
live a few more years so that I will have had fifty years of study in which
after all I will have remained free of any serious oversight.”
19. The Duke of She asked Zilu about Confucius, but Zilu
did not reply. The Master said, "Why didn't you just say to him: As a
person, Confucius is driven by such eagerness to teach and learn that he
forgets to eat, he enjoys himself so much that he forgets to worry, and does
not even realize that old age is on the way.”
20. The Master said, “I am
not the kind of person who has gained knowledge (zhi) through some natural
propensity for it. Rather, loving antiquity, I am ernest
in seeking it out."
25. The Master taught under four categories: culture (wen), proper conduct (xing), doing
one's utmost (zhong),
and making good on one's word (xin).
28. The Master said, “There
are probably those who can initiate new paths while still not understanding
them, but I am not one of them. I learn much, select out of it what works well,
and then follow it. I observe much, and remember it. This is a lower level of
wisdom.”
34. The Master said, “How would
I dare to consider myself a sage (sheng) or an authoritative person (ren)? What can be said about me
is simply that I continue my studies without respite and instruct others
without growing weary.” Gongxi Hua
remarked, "It is precisely this commitment that we students are unable to
learn."
36. The Master said,
“Extravagance leads to immodesty; frugality leads to miserliness. But it is
better to be miserly than immodest.”
Book VIII
8. The Master said, "I
find inspiration by intoning the songs, I learn where to stand from observing
ritual propriety (li)
and I find fulfillment in playing music."
9. The Master said, “The
common people can be induced to travel along the way, but they cannot be
induced to realize (zhi)
it.”
12. The Master said, “It is
not easy to find students who will study for three years without their thoughts
turning to an official salary."
17. The Master said, “Study
as though you cannot catch up to it, and as though you fear you are going to
lose it.”
Book IX
2. A villager from Daxiang said, "How grand is Confucius! He is broad in
his learning, and yet he is not renowned in any particular area." The
Master on hearing of this, said to his disciples, "What should I specialize
in? Perhaps charioteering? Or maybe archery? No, I
think I'll take charioteering.”
8. The Master said, “Do I
possess wisdom (zhi)?
No, I do not. But if a simple peasant puts a question to me, and I come up
empty, I attack the question from both ends until I have gotten to the bottom
of it."
11. Yan
Hui, with a deep sigh, said, "The more I look up
at it, the higher it soars; the more I penetrate into it, the harder it
becomes. I am looking at it in front of me, and suddenly it is behind me. The
Master is good at drawing me forward a step at a time; he broadens me with
culture (wen)
and disciplines my behavior through the observance of ritual propriety (li). Even if I
wanted to quit, I could not. And when I have exhausted my abilities, it is as
though something rises up right in front of me, and even though I want to
follow it, there is no road to take.”
24. The Master said, “How
could one but comply with what model sayings have to say? But the real value
lies in reforming one's ways. How could one but find pleasure in polite
language? But the real value lies in drawing out its meaning. What can possibly
be done with people who find pleasure in polite language but do not draw out
its meaning, or who comply with model sayings but do not reform their ways.”
Book X
21. The Master on entering
the Grand Ancestral Hall asked questions about everything.
Book XI
4. The Master said, “Yan Hui is of no help to me. There
is nothing I say that he doesn't like.”
21. The Master said, “Allowing
that a person is earnest in his words, the question is: is he an exemplary
person (junzi)
or is he just pretending to be serious?”
Book XII
16. The Master said, “The
exemplary person (junzi)
helps to bring out the best in others, but does not help to bring out the
worst. The petty person does just the opposite.”
Book XIII
29. The Master said, “It is
only once a truly efficacious person (shanren) has instructed the people for seven years that the
subject of battle can be broached.”
30. The Master said, “To go
into battle with people who have not been properly trained is to forsake them.”
Book XIV
1. Yuansi
inquired about shameful conduct, and the Master replied, "To receive a
stipend of grain when the way (dao) prevails in a state and to be still receiving this
stipend when it does not, is shameful conduct."
He again inquired, "If in one's
conduct one refrains from intimidation, from self-importance, from ill will,
and from greed, can one be considered authoritative (ren)?”
"I would say that this is hard to
do," replied the Master, "but I don't know
that it makes one's conduct authoritative."
3. The Master said, “When the
way prevails be perilously high-minded in your speech and conduct; when it does
not prevail, be perilously high-minded in your conduct, but be prudent in what
you say.”
7. The Master said, “Can you really
love without urging them on? Can you do your utmost (zhong) for your lord without
instructing him?”
24. The Master said, “Scholars
of old would study for their own sake, while those of today do so to impress
others.”
29.
44. A youth from the Que village would carry messages for the Master. Someone
asked Confucius, "Is he making any progress?” The Master replied, "I
have seen him sitting in places reserved for his seniors, and have seen him
waling side by side with his elders. This is someone intent on growing up
quickly rather than on making progress."
Book XV
3. The Master said, “
"No it is not," said the Master,
"I just pull it together on one continuous strand."
8. The Master said, “To fail
to speak with someone who can be engaged is to let that person go to waste; to
speak with someone who cannot be engaged is to waste your words. The wise (zhi) do not let
people go to waste, but they do not waste their words either.”
30. The Master said, “Having
gone astray, to fail to get right back on track is to stray indeed.”
31. The Master said, “Once,
lost in my thoughts, I went a whole day without eating and a whole night without
sleeping. I got nothing out of it, and would have been better off devoting the
time to learning .”
32. The Master said, “Exemplary
persons (junzi)
make their plans around the way (dao) and not around their sustenance. Tilling the land often
leads to hunger as a matter of course; studying often leads to an official
salary as a matter of course. Exemplary persons are anxious about the way, and
not about poverty.”
36. The Master said, “In
striving to be authoritative in your conduct (ren) do not yield even to your
teacher.”
39. The Master said, “In
instruction, there is no such thing as social classes.”
40. The Master said, “People
who have chosen different ways (dao) cannot make plans together.”
Book XVI
8. Confucius said, “Exemplary
persons (junzi)
hold three things in awe: the propensities of tian (tianming),
persons in high station, and the words of the sages (shengren). Petty persons, knowing
nothing of the propensities of tian, do not hold it
in awe; they are unduly familiar with persons in high station, and ridicule the
words of the sages.”
9. Confucius said, “Knowledge
(zhi)
acquired through a natural propensity for it is its highest level; knowledge
acquired through study is the next highest; something learned in response to
difficulties encountered is again the next highest. But those among the common
people who do not learn even when vexed with difficulties – they are at the
bottom of the heap.”
Book XVII
8. The Master said, “Zilu, have you heard of the six flaws that can accompany
the six desirable qualities of character?”
"No, I have not," replied Zilu.
"Sit down," said the Master,
"and I'll tell you about them. The flaw in being fond of acting
authoritatively (ren)
without regard for learning is that you will be easily duped; the flaw in being
fond of acting wisely (zhi)
without equal regard for learning is that it leads to self-indulgence; the flaw
in being fond of making good on one's word (xin) without regard for learning
is that it leads one into harm's way; the flaw in being fond of candor without
equal regard for learning is that it leads to rudeness; the flaw in being fond
of boldness without equal regard for learning is that it leads to unruliness;
the flaw in being fond of firmness without equal regard for learning is that it
leads to rashness."
9. The Master said, “My young
friends, why don't any of you study the Songs?
Reciting the Songs can arouse your
sensibilities, strengthen your powers of observation, enhance your ability to
get on with others, and sharpen your critical skills. Close at hand it enables
you to serve your father, and away at court it enables you to serve your lord.
It instills in you a broad vocabulary for making distinctions in the world
around you.”
10. The Master said to his
son, Boyu, “Have you mastered the Zhounan and the Shaonan sections
of the Book of Songs? Striving to
become a person without doing so is like trying to take your stand with your
face to the wall.”
Book XIX
5. Zixia
said, “A person can be said to truly love learning (haoxue) who, on a daily basis, is
aware of what is yet to be learned, and who, from month to month, does not
forget what has already been learned.”
6. Zixia
said, “Learn broadly yet be focused in your purposes; inquire with urgency yet
reflect closely on the question at hand – authoritative conduct (ren) lies simply
in this.”
7. Zixia
said, “The various craftsmen stay in their shops so that they may master their
trades; exemplary persons (junzi) study that they might promote their way (dao).”
8. Zixia
said, “Petty persons are sure to gloss over where they have gone astray.”
13. Zixia
said, “If while serving in public office one has a surplus of energy, it should
be directed toward study; if while studying one has a surplus of energy, it
should be directed at seeking pubic office.”
22. Gongsun
Chao of Wei asked
Selected
and copied from Confucius, The Analects (Lun yü), translated by Roger
T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr.,