Book 17 · Yang Huo 陽貨
17.1
陽貨欲見孔子，孔子不見，歸孔子豚。
孔子時其亡也，而往拜之。
遇諸塗。
謂孔子曰：「來！
予與爾言。」
曰：「懷其寶而迷其邦，可謂仁乎？」
曰：「不可。」
「好從事而亟失時，可謂知乎？」
曰：「不可。」
「日月逝矣！
歲不我與！」
孔子曰：「諾，吾將仕矣！」
Yang Huo1 wanted Confucius to call on him. Confucius would not call, so he sent Confucius a suckling pig.
Confucius chose a time when he was out and went to give thanks.
They met on the road.
He said to Confucius, “Come!
I have something to say to you.”
He said, “To hoard one’s treasure while one’s state goes astray, can that be called humane?”
He said, “It cannot.”
“To love taking part in affairs and yet keep missing the moment, can that be called wise?”
He said, “It cannot.”
“The days and months go by!
The years do not wait for us!”
Confucius said, “Very well. I will take office!”
17.2
子曰：「性相近也，習相遠也。」
The Master said, “By nature men are close to one another; by practice they grow far apart.”
17.3
子曰：「唯上知與下愚不移。」
The Master said, “Only the wisest and the most foolish do not change.”
17.4
子之武城，聞弦歌之聲，夫子莞爾而笑曰：「割雞焉用牛刀？」
子游對曰：「昔者，偃也聞諸夫子曰：『君子學道則愛人，小人學道則易使也。』」
子曰：「二三子！
偃之言是也，前言戲之耳！」
The Master went to Wucheng and heard the sound of stringed instruments and singing. The Master smiled and said, “Why use an ox knife to kill a chicken?”
Ziyou replied, “Once I heard you say, Master, ‘When the gentleman learns the Way, he loves others; when the petty man learns the Way, he is easy to employ.’”
The Master said, “My friends!
What Yan says is right. What I said before was only a joke!”
17.5
公山弗擾以費叛，召，子欲往。
子路不說，曰：「末之也已，何必公山氏之之也？」
子曰：「夫召我者，而豈徒哉？
如有用我者，吾其為東周乎！」
Gongshan Furao2 held Bi in revolt and summoned the Master, and the Master wanted to go.
Zilu was displeased and said, “There is nowhere to go, so be it. Why must you go to Gongshan?”
The Master said, “The man who summons me, would he do it for nothing?
If anyone would use me, I could make a Zhou in the east!”
17.6
子張問「仁」於孔子。
孔子曰：「能行五者於天下，為仁矣。」
「請問之？」
曰：「恭、寬、信、敏、惠。
恭則不侮，寬則得眾，信則人任焉，敏則有功，惠則足以使人。」
Zizhang asked Confucius about humaneness.
Confucius said, “One who can practice five things in the world is humane.”
“May I ask what they are?”
He said, “Respect, generosity, good faith, diligence, and kindness.
Be respectful, and you will not be insulted; be generous, and you will win the multitude; keep good faith, and others will rely on you; be diligent, and you will have success; be kind, and you will be able to employ others.”
17.7
佛肸召，子欲往。
子路曰：「昔者由也聞諸夫子曰：『親於其身為不善者，君子不入也』。
佛肸以中牟畔，子之往也，如之何？」
子曰：「然，有是言也。
不曰堅乎？
磨而不磷；
不曰白乎？
涅而不緇。
吾豈匏瓜也哉？
焉能繫而不食！」
Bi Xi3 summoned the Master, and the Master wanted to go.
Zilu said, “Once I heard you say, Master, ‘The gentleman does not enter the company of one who in his own person does what is not good.’
Bi Xi holds Zhongmou in revolt. How can you go to him?”
The Master said, “Yes, I said that.
But do they not say, ‘Truly hard’?
It can be ground and not worn thin;
do they not say, ‘Truly white’?
It can be dyed and not turn black.
Am I a bitter gourd?
How can I hang there and not be eaten?”
17.8
子曰：「由也，女聞六言六蔽矣乎？」
對曰：「未也。」
「居！
吾語女。
好仁不好學，其蔽也愚；
好知不好學，其蔽也蕩；
好信不好學，其蔽也賊；
好直不好學，其蔽也絞；
好勇不好學，其蔽也亂；
好剛不好學，其蔽也狂。」
The Master said, “You, have you heard of the six sayings and the six failings?”
He replied, “Not yet.”
“Sit down!
I will tell you.
To love humaneness without loving learning: the failing is foolishness;
to love wisdom without loving learning: the failing is aimlessness;
to love good faith without loving learning: the failing is doing harm;
to love uprightness without loving learning: the failing is harshness;
to love courage without loving learning: the failing is disorder;
to love firmness without loving learning: the failing is wildness.”
17.9
子曰：「小子！
何莫學夫詩？
詩，可以興，可以觀，可以群，可以怨。
邇之事父，遠之事君，多識於鳥獸草木之名。」
The Master said, “My young friends!
Why does none of you study the Songs?
The Songs can stir you, can let you observe, can bring you together with others, can let you voice complaint.
Close at hand, they teach you to serve your father; further off, to serve your ruler; and you learn the names of many birds and beasts, plants and trees.”
17.10
子謂伯魚曰：「女為周南召南矣乎？
人而不為周南，召南，其猶正牆面而立也與？」
The Master said to Boyu, “Have you worked through the ‘Zhou Nan’ and the ‘Shao Nan’?4
A man who has not worked through the ‘Zhou Nan’ and the ‘Shao Nan,’ does he not stand, as it were, face to face with a wall?”
17.11
子曰：「禮云禮云，玉帛云乎哉？
樂云樂云，鐘鼓云乎哉？」
The Master said, “Ritual, they say, ritual! Does it mean jade and silk?
Music, they say, music! Does it mean bells and drums?”
17.12
子曰：「色厲而內荏，譬諸小人，其猶穿窬之盜也與。」
The Master said, “Stern of face and weak within: among petty men, he is like a thief who bores through walls, is he not?”
17.13
子曰：「鄉原，德之賊也。」
The Master said, “The village worthy is the thief of virtue.”
17.14
子曰：「道聽而塗說，德之棄也。」
The Master said, “To repeat on the road what one has heard along the way is to throw virtue away.”
17.15
子曰：「鄙夫可與事君也與？
其未得之也，患得之；
既得之，患失之。
苟患失之，無所不至矣！」
The Master said, “Can one serve a ruler alongside a base man?
Before he has got it, he worries about getting it;
once he has got it, he worries about losing it.
If he worries about losing it, there is nothing he will not stoop to!”
17.16
子曰：「古者民有三疾，今也或是之亡也。
古之狂也肆，今之狂也蕩；
古之矜也廉，今之矜也忿戾；
古之愚也直，今之愚也詐而已矣。」
The Master said, “In ancient times the people had three failings, and now perhaps even these are gone.
The wild of old were unrestrained; the wild of today are dissolute.
The proud of old were scrupulous; the proud of today are quarrelsome and perverse.
The foolish of old were straight; the foolish of today are only deceitful.”
17.17
子曰：「巧言令色鮮矣仁。」
The Master said, “Clever words and an ingratiating face are seldom humane.”
17.18
子曰：「惡紫之奪朱也，惡鄭聲之亂雅樂也，惡利口之覆邦家者。」
The Master said, “I hate purple for taking the place of vermilion, I hate the tunes of Zheng for confusing the classical music, and I hate sharp tongues that overturn states and houses.”
17.19
子曰：「予欲無言！」
子貢曰：「子如不言，則小子何述焉？」
子曰：「天何言哉！
四時行焉，百物生焉，天何言哉？」
The Master said, “I would rather not speak!”
Zigong said, “If you do not speak, Master, what will we disciples have to hand on?”
The Master said, “Does Heaven speak?
The four seasons go their round, the hundred things are born. Does Heaven speak?”
17.20
孺悲欲見孔子，孔子辭以疾，將命者出戶，取瑟而歌，使之聞之。
Ru Bei5 wanted to see Confucius, and Confucius declined on the grounds of illness. As soon as the bearer of the message was out of the door, he took up his zither and sang, so that the man would hear.
17.21
宰我問：「三年之喪，期已久矣！
君子三年不為禮，禮必壞；
三年不為樂，樂必崩。
舊穀既沒，新穀既升；
鑽燧改火，期可已矣。」
子曰：「食夫稻，衣夫錦，於女安乎？」
曰：「安！」
「女安則為之。
夫君子之居喪，食旨不甘，聞樂不樂，居處不安，故不為也。
今女安，則為之。」
宰我出。
子曰：「予之不仁也！
子生三年，然後免於父母之懷。
夫三年之喪，天下之通喪也；
予也，有三年之愛於其父母乎？」
Zai Wo asked, “Three years of mourning: a year is already long enough!
If the gentleman does not practice ritual for three years, ritual is sure to decay;
if he does not practice music for three years, music is sure to collapse.
The old grain is gone, the new grain has come up;
the fire drills have been changed for the year’s new fire.6 A year should be enough.”
The Master said, “Eating rice and wearing brocade, would you be at ease?”
He said, “I would!”
“If you would be at ease, then do it.
But the gentleman in mourning finds no sweetness in fine food, no joy in music, and no ease where he lives, and so he does not do it.
Now if you would be at ease, do it.”
Zai Wo went out.
The Master said, “How inhumane Yu is!
Only when a child is three years old does it leave its parents’ arms.
Three years of mourning is the mourning observed by all the world;
did Yu not have three years of love from his father and mother?”
17.22
子曰：「飽食終日，無所用心，難矣哉！
不有博弈者乎？
為之猶賢乎已！」
The Master said, “To eat one’s fill all day and give one’s mind to nothing: that is hard!
Are there not games like bo and yi?
Even playing them is better than nothing!”
17.23
子路曰：「君子尚勇乎？」
子曰：「君子義以為上。
君子有勇而無義為亂，小人有勇而無義為盜。」
Zilu said, “Does the gentleman prize courage?”
The Master said, “The gentleman puts rightness above all.
A gentleman with courage and without rightness will make disorder; a petty man with courage and without rightness will become a thief.”
17.24
子貢曰：「君子亦有惡乎？」
子曰：「有惡。
惡稱人之惡者，惡居下流而訕上者，惡勇而無禮者，惡果敢而窒者。」
曰：「賜也亦有惡乎？」
「惡徼以為知者，惡不孫以為勇者，惡訐以為直者。」
Zigong said, “Does the gentleman too have things he hates?”
The Master said, “He has things he hates.
He hates those who speak of other men’s faults, he hates those who are of low station and slander their superiors, he hates the brave who have no ritual, and he hates the bold and decisive who are blocked in their understanding.”
He said, “Ci, do you too have things you hate?”
Zigong replied, “I hate those who take prying for wisdom, those who take insolence for courage, and those who take exposing others for uprightness.”7
17.25
子曰：「唯女子與小人為難養也！
近之則不孫，遠之則怨。」
The Master said, “Women and petty men are the hardest to look after!
Be close to them, and they grow insolent; keep them at a distance, and they resent it.”
17.26
子曰：「年四十而見惡焉，其終也已。」
The Master said, “If at forty a man is still disliked, he will be so to the end.”
Notes
1. Yang Hu, a retainer of the Ji who for some years held power in Lu. Ritual required a man who received a gift from a high officer at home to go and give thanks at his house.
2. A retainer of the Ji who rose against them at Bi, probably in 502 BC.
3. Steward of Zhongmou for the Zhao family of Jin, who rebelled there.
4. The first two sections of the Songs.
5. A man of Lu who had been sent to learn the rites of mourning from Confucius.
6. The fire for each season was kindled with drills of a different wood, and the cycle was complete in a year.
7. Zigong’s reply has no speaker in the Chinese; with Zhu Xi we take the question as the Master’s and supply Zigong for the answer.