Book 3 · Ba Yi 八佾
3.1
孔子謂季氏，「八佾舞於庭，是可忍也，孰不可忍也？」
Confucius said of the head of the Ji, “He has eight rows of dancers1 perform in his courtyard. If he can bring himself to do this, what can he not bring himself to do?”2
3.2
三家者以雍徹。
子曰：「『相維辟公，天子穆穆』，奚取於三家之堂？」
The Three Families had the Yong sung at the clearing away of the sacrifice.3
The Master said, “‘The lords of the land assisting, the Son of Heaven solemn and grave’: what is there in that for the halls of the Three Families?”
3.3
子曰：「人而不仁，如禮何？
人而不仁，如樂何？」
The Master said, “If a man is not humane, what has he to do with ritual?
If a man is not humane, what has he to do with music?”
3.4
林放問禮之本。
子曰：「大哉問！
禮，與其奢也，寧儉；
喪，與其易也，寧戚。」
Lin Fang4 asked about the root of ritual.
The Master said, “A great question!
In ritual, rather than extravagance, frugality;
in mourning, rather than smooth arrangement, grief.”
3.5
子曰：「夷狄之有君，不如諸夏之亡也。」
The Master said, “The barbarians with their rulers are not equal to the states of Xia without theirs.”5
3.6
季氏旅於泰山，子謂冉有曰：「女弗能救與？」
對曰：「不能。」
子曰：「嗚呼！
曾謂泰山不如林放乎？」
The head of the Ji sacrificed to Mount Tai.6 The Master said to Ran You,7 “Can you not save him from this?”
He replied, “I cannot.”
The Master said, “Alas!
Is Mount Tai, then, to be thought less discerning than Lin Fang?”
3.7
子曰：「君子無所爭，必也射乎！
揖讓而升，下而飲。
其爭也君子。」
The Master said, “The gentleman does not compete, unless it must be in archery!
He bows and yields as he goes up, and after he comes down he drinks.
Even his competing is a gentleman’s.”
3.8
子夏問曰：「巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮，素以為絢兮。
何謂也？」
子曰：「繪事後素。」
曰：「禮後乎？」
子曰：「起予者商也！
始可與言詩矣。」
Zixia asked, “‘Her artful smile so lovely, her fine eyes so clear, the plain ground for the colors.’
What does it mean?”
The Master said, “The painting comes after the plain ground.”
He said, “Then ritual comes after?”
The Master said, “It is Shang who lifts me up!
Now I can begin to talk about the Songs with you.”8
3.9
子曰：「夏禮，吾能言之，杞不足徵也；
殷禮，吾能言之，宋不足徵也。
文獻不足故也。
足，則吾能徵之矣。」
The Master said, “The ritual of the Xia I can speak of, but Qi cannot bear witness to it;
the ritual of the Yin I can speak of, but Song cannot bear witness to it.9
That is because their records and their learned men are not enough.
If there were enough, I could bring them as witness.”
3.10
子曰：「禘自既灌而往者，吾不欲觀之矣。」
The Master said, “At the di sacrifice,10 from the pouring of the libation onward I have no wish to look on.”
3.11
或問禘之說。
子曰：「不知也。
知其說者之於天下也，其如示諸斯乎！」
指其掌。
Someone asked for the meaning of the di sacrifice.
The Master said, “I do not know.
One who knew its meaning would deal with the world as easily as with this!”
He pointed to his palm.
3.12
祭如在，祭神如神在。
子曰：「吾不與祭，如不祭。」
He sacrificed as though they were there; he sacrificed to the spirits as though the spirits were there.
The Master said, “If I do not take part in a sacrifice myself, it is as if I had not sacrificed.”
3.13
王孫賈問曰：「與其媚於奧，寧媚於灶，何謂也？」
子曰：「不然，獲罪於天，無所禱也。」
Wangsun Jia11 asked, “‘Better to court the stove than the corner of the house.’ What does that mean?”
The Master said, “It is not so. One who offends against Heaven has no one to pray to.”
3.14
子曰：「周監於二代，郁郁乎文哉！
吾從周。」
The Master said, “The Zhou looked back on the two dynasties before it. How rich its culture is!
I follow the Zhou.”
3.15
子入太廟，每事問。
或曰：「孰謂鄹人之子知禮乎？
入太廟，每事問。」
子聞之，曰：「是禮也。」
When the Master entered the Grand Temple, he asked about everything.
Someone said, “Who says the son of the man from Zou12 knows ritual?
He enters the Grand Temple and asks about everything.”
Hearing of it, the Master said, “That is ritual.”
3.16
子曰：「射不主皮，為力不同科，古之道也。」
The Master said, “In archery the point is not to pierce the hide, because men’s strength is not of one grade. That was the Way of old.”
3.17
子貢欲去告朔之餼羊。
子曰：「賜也！
爾愛其羊，我愛其禮。」
Zigong wanted to do away with the sheep offered at the announcement of the new moon.13
The Master said, “Ci!
You care about the sheep; I care about the ritual.”
3.18
子曰：「事君盡禮，人以為諂也。」
The Master said, “If one serves one’s ruler with every ritual, people think it flattery.”
3.19
定公問：「君使臣，臣事君，如之何？」
孔子對曰：「君使臣以禮，臣事君以忠。」
Duke Ding14 asked, “How should a ruler employ his ministers, and how should ministers serve their ruler?”
Confucius replied, “The ruler employs his ministers according to ritual; the ministers serve their ruler with conscientiousness.”
3.20
子曰：「關雎，樂而不淫，哀而不傷。」
The Master said, “‘The Ospreys’15 has joy without excess and sorrow without injury.”
3.21
哀公問社於宰我。
宰我對曰：「夏后氏以松，殷人以柏，周人以栗，曰，使民戰栗。」
子聞之，曰：「成事不說，遂事不諫，既往不咎。」
Duke Ai asked Zai Wo16 about the altar of the soil.
Zai Wo replied, “The Xia rulers used the pine, the men of Yin used the cypress, and the men of Zhou used the chestnut, saying it would make the people tremble.”17
Hearing of it, the Master said, “What is done is not spoken of, what is finished is not remonstrated over, what is past is not blamed.”
3.22
子曰：「管仲之器小哉。」
或曰：「管仲儉乎？」
曰：「管氏有三歸，官事不攝，焉得儉？」
「然則管仲知禮乎？」
曰：「邦君樹塞門，管氏亦樹塞門。
邦君為兩君之好，有反坫，管氏亦有反坫。
管氏而知禮，孰不知禮？」
The Master said, “Guan Zhong18 was a vessel of small capacity.”
Someone said, “Was Guan Zhong frugal?”
He said, “Guan had the Three Returns,19 and his officials held one post each. How could he be frugal?”
“Then did Guan Zhong know ritual?”
He said, “The rulers of states set up a screen at their gates; Guan too set up a screen at his gate.
When the rulers of two states met in friendship, they had a stand for the inverted cups; Guan too had a stand for the inverted cups.
If Guan knew ritual, who does not know ritual?”
3.23
子語魯大師樂，曰：「樂其可知也：始作，翕如也；
從之，純如也，皦如也，繹如也，以成。」
The Master spoke about music to the Grand Music Master of Lu. He said, “Music can be known. At the start, all the parts come together;
as it unfolds, they are in harmony, they are clear, they run on without break, and so it is completed.”
3.24
儀封人請見，曰：「君子之至於斯也，吾未嘗不得見也。」
從者見之。
出曰：「二三子何患於喪乎？
天下之無道也久矣，天將以夫子為木鐸。」
The border warden at Yi asked to be presented, saying, “Whenever a gentleman has come here, I have never failed to be presented to him.”
The followers presented him.
On coming out he said, “My friends, why worry about his loss of office?
The world has long been without the Way. Heaven is going to make your Master its wooden clapper.”20
3.25
子謂韶，「盡美矣，又盡善也。」
謂武，「盡美矣，未盡善也。」
The Master said of the Shao,21 “It is wholly beautiful and also wholly good.”
He said of the Wu, “It is wholly beautiful but not wholly good.”
3.26
子曰：「居上不寬，為禮不敬，臨喪不哀，吾何以觀之哉？」
The Master said, “Holding high place without generosity, performing ritual without reverence, attending a funeral without grief: how could I bear to look at such things?”
Notes
1. Eight rows of eight dancers were the prerogative of the Son of Heaven. A high officer such as the head of the Ji was entitled to four.
2. 忍 is read as bringing oneself to do, with Zhu Xi. Another reading: if this can be tolerated, what cannot be tolerated?
3. The Yong is an ode of the Zhou royal temple, sung when the king’s sacrifice was cleared away. The Three Families are the Meng, Shu, and Ji, the great houses of Lu.
4. A man of Lu, otherwise unknown.
5. The Xia here are the Chinese states. Another reading: even the barbarians have rulers, unlike the Chinese states, which now have none worth the name.
6. Only the ruler of a state could sacrifice to the great mountain of his land.
7. Ran Qiu, courtesy name Ziyou, a disciple, then steward of the Ji family. The book calls him Ran You, Ran Qiu, Qiu, and Master Ran.
8. Shang is Zixia’s personal name. The first two lines quoted are in the ode “Shuo Ren” of the Songs; the third is not in the received text.
9. Qi and Song were small states whose rulers descended from the Xia and the Yin.
10. A great sacrifice to the royal ancestors, belonging to the Zhou king, which Lu was allowed to perform for the Duke of Zhou.
11. A high officer of Wei who held power there.
12. Zou was the town of Confucius’s father, Shuliang He.
13. At the start of each month the ruler announced the new moon in the ancestral temple with the offering of a live sheep. In Lu the ruler no longer attended, but the sheep was still offered.
14. Duke Ding of Lu (reigned 509–495 BC), under whom Confucius held office.
15. The first ode of the Songs.
16. Zai Yu, courtesy name Ziwo, a disciple gifted in speech.
17. The word for chestnut, li, sounds like the word for trembling. Zai Wo puns on it.
18. Guan Yiwu (died 645 BC), chief minister of Duke Huan of Qi, who made Qi the leading state of its age.
19. Its meaning is uncertain: three wives from three families, three residences, or a terrace of that name. Whatever it was, it was a luxury beyond his station.
20. A bell with a wooden clapper, rung by officials to call the people together for an announcement.
21. The Shao was the music of the sage king Shun, who received the throne by abdication; the Wu was the music of King Wu of Zhou, who won it by conquest.