ChineseStudy

9. Zi Han

Contents

Text

English translation

The Master seldom spoke of profit, destiny, or humaneness.

“Seldom spoke” need not mean that he never discussed them. Profit, destiny, and humaneness are weighty subjects, not matters for casual pronouncement.

A man of the Daxiang community said, “How great Confucius is! He is broadly learned, yet has made no name in any single field.” When the Master heard this, he said to his disciples, “What specialty should I take up? Charioteering? Archery? I shall take up charioteering.”

Having “made no name” means not being defined by one particular skill. His playful choice of charioteering, the humbler art, answers the praise without claiming greatness.

The Master said, “A ceremonial cap of hemp accords with ritual. Nowadays silk is used, which is more economical, and I follow the general practice. To bow below the hall accords with ritual. Nowadays people bow above; that is presumptuous. Though it sets me apart from the majority, I bow below.”

Confucius distinguishes acceptable adaptation from loss of principle. A cheaper material may be adopted, but a rite expressing reverence should not be relaxed merely because custom has changed.

The Master rejected four faults: unfounded conjecture, insistence on certainty, stubborn rigidity, and self-centeredness.

The four form a connected progression—from assumption and dogmatic certainty to obstinacy and ego. Sound judgment requires openness and restraint.

The Master was placed in danger at Kuang. He said, “King Wen has long since died, but does not his cultural legacy abide here in me? If Heaven intended this tradition to perish, I, a man born later, would not have been allowed to share in it. If Heaven does not intend it to perish, what can the people of Kuang do to me?”

“Culture” here denotes the ritual and moral tradition inherited from King Wen. In danger, Confucius grounds his confidence in his responsibility to carry that tradition forward.

The Grand Steward asked Zigong, “Is your master a sage? How is it that he has so many abilities?” Zigong replied, “Surely Heaven has endowed him for sagehood and also given him many abilities.” Hearing of this, the Master said, “The Grand Steward understands me indeed! In my youth I was of humble station, and so I became skilled in many menial tasks. Does a gentleman need many such abilities? No, he does not.”

Confucius attributes his versatility to the circumstances of his youth, not to sagehood itself. The passage distinguishes practical accomplishments from the essential cultivation of a gentleman.

Lao said, “The Master once said, ‘Because I was not given official employment, I acquired many skills.’”

Here “given employment” refers to appointment to office, while “skills” means proficiency in various arts. The remark again connects Confucius’s versatility with his circumstances outside office.

The Master said, “Do I possess knowledge? I do not. Yet when an unschooled person asks me something, I begin as if I knew nothing; I probe the question from both ends and pursue it as fully as I can.”

To “probe both ends” is to examine opposing sides or limits of a question. The emphasis is on approaching inquiry without pretension and reaching understanding through thorough examination.

Confucius said, ‘The phoenix does not appear, and no chart emerges from the Yellow River. It seems that my cause is finished!’

The phoenix and the River Chart were traditionally regarded as auspicious signs of a sage ruler. Their absence voices Confucius’s sorrow that the Way had no prospect of being realized in public life.

When Confucius encountered someone in mourning dress, someone wearing a ceremonial cap and robes, or a blind person, he would always rise on seeing them, even if they were younger than he was; when passing them, he would quicken his steps.

The gestures mark respect for bereavement, ritual dignity, and blindness. The passage presents ritual propriety not as an abstraction but as care embodied in small acts.

Yan Yuan sighed deeply: ‘The more I look up to it, the higher it seems; the more I delve into it, the more solid it becomes. I see it before me, and suddenly it is behind me. The Master is skilled at guiding people step by step. He broadens me through learning and disciplines me through ritual. Even if I wished to stop, I could not. I have exhausted all my ability, yet something still seems to stand before me, lofty and distinct. Though I wish to follow it, I can find no way to advance further.’

Yan Yuan is praising both the depth of Confucius’s Way and his method of teaching. Broad learning is balanced by the discipline of ritual; the final sense of having no path forward conveys an inexhaustible ideal, not a rejection of study.

Confucius became gravely ill, and Zilu had the disciples act as his household officers. When his illness eased, Confucius said, ‘How long You has kept up this pretense! I have no household officers, yet he makes it appear that I do. Whom would I be deceiving? Would I deceive Heaven? Besides, rather than die in the hands of household officers, I would prefer to die in the hands of you, my disciples. Even if I do not receive a grand funeral, am I likely to die abandoned by the roadside?’

Out of devotion, Zilu tried to arrange the attendants appropriate to a high-ranking official, but that arrangement misrepresented Confucius’s actual status. Confucius insists that ritual must rest on truth and trusts his disciples to care for him without an improper display.

Zigong said, ‘Suppose there were a fine piece of jade here. Should one keep it stored in a case, or seek a discerning buyer and sell it?’ Confucius said, ‘Sell it! Sell it! I am waiting for the right buyer.’

The fine jade stands for moral worth and ability, while selling it stands for entering public service. Confucius is willing to serve, but he waits for a ruler capable of recognizing and properly employing him rather than hawking himself for office.

Confucius wished to live among the Nine Yi peoples. Someone said, ‘The place is uncultivated. How could you live there?’ Confucius said, ‘If a noble person lived there, how could it remain uncultivated?’

The Nine Yi broadly referred to peoples in regions east of the central states. Confucius locates refinement in moral character and education rather than geography: the presence and influence of a noble person can transform a place.

Confucius said, ‘Only after I returned from Wey to Lu was the music put in proper order, with the Ya and the Song each restored to its appropriate place.’

The Ya and Song were categories of songs used in distinct ritual settings. The passage credits Confucius’s work after his return to Lu with restoring the proper classification, sequence, and ritual use of the music.

Confucius said, ‘Away from home, I serve the lords and ministers; at home, I serve my father and elder brothers. In funeral matters I dare not fail to exert myself, and I am never overcome by drink. What difficulty do any of these present to me?’

Service to superiors and family elders, care in mourning rites, and restraint in drinking are ordinary ethical duties. The rhetorical question stresses that cultivation is shown through steady fulfillment of concrete responsibilities.

Standing by a river, Confucius said, ‘What passes away is like this—never ceasing, day or night.’

The flowing water prompts a reflection on time and the unbroken course of change. The remark also urges sustained effort and care for each passing moment.

Confucius said, ‘I have yet to see anyone who loves virtue as intensely as beauty.’

The comparison measures moral commitment against a powerful natural attraction. Its point is the rarity of wholehearted devotion to virtue, rather than a denial of desire itself.

Confucius said, ‘Consider building a mound: if I stop when only one basketful remains, it is I who have stopped. Consider leveling the ground: even if I have emptied only one basketful, when I advance, it is I who move forward.’

A kui was a basket used for carrying earth. The images stress personal agency: progress in learning and character depends on choosing to continue, even when the step is small.

Confucius said, ‘The one who never grows slack when I instruct him is surely Hui!’

Hui is Yan Hui, a disciple repeatedly praised for his dedication. “Not growing slack” suggests more than attentive listening: he steadily carried instruction into practice.

Speaking of Yan Yuan, Confucius said, ‘What a loss! I saw him continually advance; I never saw him stop.’

Yan Yuan is Yan Hui. The opening lament is commonly understood in light of his early death, while the rest praises his uninterrupted moral and intellectual progress.

Confucius said, ‘There are indeed plants that sprout but never flower! And there are indeed plants that flower but never bear fruit!’

The stages of growth serve as a metaphor for learning and self-cultivation. A promising beginning or visible progress does not guarantee mature achievement; effort must be sustained.

Confucius said, ‘The young deserve respect. How can we know that those to come will not equal those of today? But if at forty or fifty a person has made no name, then that person is no longer worthy of such regard.’

Youth is formidable because its future achievement cannot be measured in advance. Yet promise must eventually become demonstrated character and accomplishment; age alone earns no esteem.

Confucius said, ‘Can one refuse to follow words of principled admonition? What matters is correcting oneself. Can one fail to be pleased by gently offered counsel? What matters is examining it fully. If a person is pleased but does not examine, or agrees but does not change, I simply do not know what can be done with him.’

“Principled words” are direct admonitions grounded in proper standards, while “gentle counsel” is tactfully expressed. The chapter distinguishes a polite response from genuine benefit: advice must lead to reflection and reform.

The Master said, “Make loyalty and trustworthiness your guiding principles. Do not take as a friend anyone whose character falls short of your own. When you make a mistake, do not hesitate to correct it.”

“Make ... your guiding principles” explains zhu as giving first place to loyalty and trustworthiness. Choosing friends is about moral benefit, not social rank, and the saying culminates in the courage to amend one’s faults.

The Master said, “An army may be deprived of its commander, but even an ordinary person cannot be made to surrender a firm resolve.”

“The three armies” means the armed forces as a whole, while “an ordinary person” stresses the individual. The contrast presents settled purpose as an inward possession that coercion cannot seize.

The Master said, “The one who can stand in a worn robe padded with coarse silk beside people dressed in fox or badger fur and feel no shame—surely that is You! ‘Neither envious nor grasping—how could he fail to be good?’” Zilu recited these lines for the rest of his life. The Master said, “How could this one way alone be enough to make him good?”

You was Zilu’s personal name. Zhi suggests envious ill will, and qiu grasping desire. Confucius first praises Zilu’s freedom from shame about poverty, then warns him not to rest content with a single virtue or a favorite verse.

The Master said, “Only when the year turns cold do we recognize that pine and cypress are the last to wither.”

Cold weather reveals differences among plants just as adversity reveals differences in character. Their late withering serves as an image of the exemplary person’s endurance under hardship, not a claim that they never fade.

The Master said, “The wise are not perplexed; the humane are not burdened by anxiety; the courageous are not afraid.”

Wisdom brings discernment, humaneness gives inner steadiness, and courage enables one to face danger. Together they describe complementary dimensions of cultivated character.

The Master said, “Someone may be fit to study with, yet not fit to proceed with toward the Way; fit to proceed with toward the Way, yet not fit to take a firm stand with; fit to take a firm stand with, yet not fit to weigh circumstances with.”

The sequence rises from shared study to following the Way, standing firmly, and finally quan—the judgment to adapt to circumstances without abandoning what is right. Each stage demands a deeper union of understanding and conduct.

“The blossoms of the wild plum sway and turn. Do I not think of you? But your home is so far away.” The Master said, “The thought is not truly there. If it were, what distance could there be?”

The opening lines are a song in which distance prevents a meeting. Confucius turns it into a lesson: genuine longing—or genuine commitment—moves a person to act, while distance can become an excuse for a purpose weakly held.

Feedback