Book 7 · Shu Er 述而
7.1
子曰：「述而不作，信而好古，竊比於我老彭。」
The Master said, “I hand on and do not create. I believe in the ancients and love them. I venture to compare myself with our Old Peng.”1
7.2
子曰：「默而識之，學而不厭，誨人不倦，何有於我哉？」
The Master said, “To store things up in silence, to learn without tiring, to teach others without growing weary: what of these is there in me?”
7.3
子曰：「德之不修，學之不講，聞義不能徙，不善不能改，是吾憂也。」
The Master said, “Virtue not cultivated, learning not discussed, hearing what is right and not being able to move toward it, not being able to change what is not good: these are my worries.”
7.4
子之燕居，申申如也，夭夭如也。
In his leisure at home the Master was relaxed and easy, cheerful and at peace.
7.5
子曰：「甚矣吾衰也！
久矣吾不復夢見周公！」
The Master said, “How far I have declined!
It has been long since I last saw the Duke of Zhou2 in a dream!”
7.6
子曰：「志於道，據於德，依於仁，游於藝。」
The Master said, “Set your heart on the Way, base yourself on virtue, rely on humaneness, and take your ease in the arts.”
7.7
子曰：「自行束修以上，吾未嘗無誨焉。」
The Master said, “From the man who brought a bundle of dried meat3 upward, I have never refused anyone instruction.”
7.8
子曰：「不憤不啟，不悱不發。
舉一隅不以三隅反，則不復也。」
The Master said, “I do not open the way for one who is not eager, nor draw out one who is not struggling to speak.
If I hold up one corner and he does not come back with the other three, I do not go on.”
7.9
子食於有喪者之側，未嘗飽也。
子於是日哭，則不歌。
When the Master ate beside one who was in mourning, he never ate his fill.
On a day when he had wept, the Master did not sing.
7.10
子謂顏淵曰：「用之則行，舍之則藏，惟我與爾有是夫。」
子路曰：「子行三軍，則誰與？」
子曰：「暴虎馮河，死而不悔者，吾不與也。
必也臨事而懼，好謀而成者也。」
The Master said to Yan Yuan, “To go forth when employed and to withdraw when set aside: only you and I have this.”
Zilu said, “If you were leading the Three Armies,4 whom would you take with you?”
The Master said, “A man who would fight a tiger bare-handed or cross a river without a boat and die without regret, I would not take with me.
It would have to be one who approaches his task with fear, who loves to plan, and who succeeds.”
7.11
子曰：「富而可求也，雖執鞭之士，吾亦為之。
如不可求，從吾所好。」
The Master said, “If wealth could be sought, I would seek it, even if it meant holding the whip at the market gate.
Since it cannot be sought, I follow what I love.”
7.12
子之所慎：齊，戰，疾。
The things the Master was careful about: fasting, war, and illness.
7.13
子在齊聞韶，三月不知肉味，曰：「不圖為樂之至於斯也。」
When the Master was in Qi he heard the Shao, and for three months he did not notice the taste of meat. He said, “I never imagined music could reach such heights.”
7.14
冉有曰：「夫子為衛君乎？」
子貢曰：「諾，吾將問之。」
入曰：「伯夷、叔齊何人也？」
曰：「古之賢人也。」
曰：「怨乎？」
曰：「求仁而得仁，又何怨？」
出曰：「夫子不為也。」
Ran You said, “Is the Master for the ruler of Wei?”5
Zigong said, “Well, I will ask him.”
He went in and said, “What sort of men were Bo Yi and Shu Qi?”
He said, “Worthy men of old.”
He said, “Did they have regrets?”
He said, “They sought humaneness and attained humaneness. What would they regret?”
He came out and said, “The Master is not for him.”
7.15
子曰：「飯疏食，飲水，曲肱而枕之，樂亦在其中矣。
不義而富且貴，於我如浮雲。」
The Master said, “To eat coarse rice, drink water, and bend my arm for a pillow: there is joy in that too.
Wealth and rank gained by what is not right are to me like floating clouds.”
7.16
子曰：「加我數年，五十以學易，可以無大過矣。」
The Master said, “Give me a few more years, so that I may study the Changes at fifty, and I may be without great faults.”6
7.17
子所雅言，詩、書、執禮，皆雅言也。
What the Master spoke in the standard speech: the Songs, the Documents, and the conduct of ritual. In all these he used the standard speech.7
7.18
葉公問孔子於子路，子路不對。
子曰：「女奚不曰，其為人也，發憤忘食，樂以忘憂，不知老之將至云爾。」
The Lord of She8 asked Zilu about Confucius, and Zilu did not answer.
The Master said, “Why did you not say: he is the kind of man who in his eagerness forgets to eat, in his joy forgets his worries, and does not notice old age coming on?”
7.19
子曰：「我非生而知之者，好古，敏以求之者也。」
The Master said, “I am not one who was born knowing it. I love the ancients and am quick to seek it there.”
7.20
子不語怪力亂神。
The Master did not speak of prodigies, feats of strength, disorders, or spirits.
7.21
子曰：「三人行，必有我師焉：擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。」
The Master said, “When three men walk together, there is sure to be a teacher for me among them: I pick out their good points and follow them, and their bad points and correct them in myself.”
7.22
子曰：「天生德於予，桓魋其如予何？」
The Master said, “Heaven gave birth to the virtue in me. What can Huan Tui9 do to me?”
7.23
子曰：「二三子以我為隱乎？
吾無隱乎爾。
吾無行而不與二三子者，是丘也。」
The Master said, “My friends, do you think I hide things from you?
I hide nothing from you.
There is nothing I do that I do not share with you, my friends. That is the man I am.”
7.24
子以四教：文，行，忠，信。
The Master taught four things: letters, conduct, conscientiousness, and good faith.
7.25
子曰：「聖人，吾不得而見之矣，得見君子者，斯可矣。」
子曰：「善人，吾不得而見之矣，得見有恒者，斯可矣。
亡而為有，虛而為盈，約而為泰，難乎有恒矣。」
The Master said, “A sage I cannot hope to see. If I could see a gentleman, that would do.”
The Master said, “A good man I cannot hope to see. If I could see a man of constancy, that would do.
To have nothing and pretend to have, to be empty and pretend to be full, to be in want and pretend to be at ease: such men will find constancy hard.”
7.26
子釣而不綱，弋不射宿。
The Master fished with a line but not with a net; shooting with a corded arrow, he did not aim at birds at roost.
7.27
子曰：「蓋有不知而作之者，我無是也。
多聞，擇其善者而從之。
多見而識之，知之次也。」
The Master said, “There may be those who make things up without knowing. I am not one of them.
I hear much, pick out what is good, and follow it.
I see much and store it up. This is the second kind of knowing.”
7.28
互鄉難與言，童子見，門人惑。
子曰：「與其進也，不與其退也，唯何甚？
人潔己以進，與其潔也，不保其往也。」
The people of Huxiang were hard to talk with, and when a boy from there was received, the disciples were perplexed.
The Master said, “I approve of his coming forward, not of his going back. Why be so severe?
When a man purifies himself to come forward, approve of his purity; do not vouch for his past.”
7.29
子曰：「仁遠乎哉？
我欲仁，斯仁至矣。」
The Master said, “Is humaneness far away?
I want humaneness, and here humaneness is.”
7.30
陳司敗問昭公知禮乎，孔子曰：「知禮。」
孔子退，揖巫馬期而進之曰：「吾聞君子不黨，君子亦黨乎？
君取於吳，為同姓，謂之吳孟子。
君而知禮，孰不知禮？」
巫馬期以告。
子曰：「丘也幸，苟有過，人必知之。」
The minister of justice of Chen asked whether Duke Zhao10 knew ritual. Confucius said, “He knew ritual.”
When Confucius had withdrawn, the minister bowed to Wuma Qi,11 drew him forward, and said, “I have heard that the gentleman is not partial. Is the gentleman partial after all?
The duke took a wife from Wu, of the same clan name as himself, and called her Wu Mengzi.
If the duke knew ritual, who does not know ritual?”
Wuma Qi reported this.
The Master said, “I am fortunate. If I make a mistake, others are sure to know of it.”
7.31
子與人歌而善，必使反之，而後和之。
When the Master sang with others and one sang well, he would always have him sing it again, and then join in.
7.32
子曰：「文，莫吾猶人也。
躬行君子，則吾未之有得。」
The Master said, “In letters perhaps I am as good as others.
But as to living as a gentleman in my own person, that I have not yet attained.”
7.33
子曰：「若聖與仁，則吾豈敢？
抑為之不厭，誨人不倦，則可謂云爾已矣。」
公西華曰：「正唯弟子不能學也。」
The Master said, “As for sageliness and humaneness, how would I dare claim them?
But that I work at it without tiring and teach others without growing weary, that much can be said of me.”
Gongxi Hua said, “That is just what we disciples cannot learn.”
7.34
子疾病，子路請禱。
子曰：「有諸？」
子路對曰：「有之。
誄曰：『禱爾于上下神祇。』」
子曰：「丘之禱久矣。」
The Master was gravely ill, and Zilu asked to offer prayers.
The Master said, “Is there such a thing?”
Zilu replied, “There is.
The eulogy says, ‘We pray for you to the spirits above and below.’”
The Master said, “I have been praying for a long time.”
7.35
子曰：「奢則不孫，儉則固。
與其不孫也，寧固。」
The Master said, “Extravagance leads to presumption, and frugality to meanness.
Rather than presumption, better meanness.”
7.36
子曰：「君子坦蕩蕩，小人長戚戚。」
The Master said, “The gentleman is calm and at ease; the petty man is always anxious and fretful.”
7.37
子溫而厲，威而不猛，恭而安。
The Master was warm and yet stern, commanding and yet not fierce, respectful and yet at ease.
Notes
1. Old Peng is variously identified: a worthy officer of the Shang who loved antiquity, or Laozi and Pengzu, a man of legendary age.
2. Ji Dan, brother of King Wu, regent for his young nephew King Cheng, and founder of the house of Lu; to Confucius the model of the Zhou order.
3. The smallest gift a pupil could bring a teacher. Some read 束修 as binding one’s hair, coming of age at fifteen.
4. The army of a large state.
5. Duke Chu of Wei held the throne against his own father, the exiled heir Kuai Kui. Bo Yi and Shu Qi, by contrast, had yielded the throne to each other.
6. Another reading follows the Lu text, 亦 for 易: so that I may study at fifty, and then I may be without great faults.
7. 雅言 is read as the correct speech of the Zhou court, as opposed to the dialect of Lu.
8. Shen Zhuliang, governor of She, a town of Chu, who styled himself lord.
9. A military officer of Song who tried to kill Confucius while he was passing through Song.
10. Duke Zhao of Lu (reigned 541–510 BC). The rulers of Lu and Wu both bore the clan name Ji, and ritual forbade marriage within a clan; the duke disguised it by calling his wife by a name of Wu.
11. Wuma Shi, courtesy name Ziqi, a disciple.