一孔录子谓韶：尽美矣，又尽善也。谓武：尽美矣，未尽善也。The Master said of the Shao: Perfectly beautiful, and perfectly good. He said of the Wu: Perfectly beautiful, but not perfectly good.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
常The common reading
Equally beautiful — so where is the difference?
注Key words in the commentary
“韶，舜乐。武，武王乐。美者，声容之盛。善者，美之实也” — the Shao is Shun's music, the Wu King Wu's; beauty is the fullness of sound and dance, goodness is the substance of beauty; “其功一也，故其乐皆尽美” — their achievements were the same, so both musics are perfectly beautiful; “舜之德，性之也，又以揖逊而有天下；武王之德，反之也，又以征诛而得天下，故其实有不同者” — Shun's virtue was by nature, and he gained the world by yielding; King Wu's virtue was regained, and he won the world by conquest, so in substance they differ.
家What other commentators say
Cheng Yi: “成汤放桀，惟有惭德，武王亦然，故未尽善” — when Tang banished Jie he felt ashamed, and so did King Wu, hence “not perfectly good”; “尧舜汤武，其揆一也。征伐非其所欲，所遇之时然尔” — Yao, Shun, Tang and Wu were one in principle; conquest was not what they wanted, only what their times demanded.
读How Yikonglu reads it
The difference is in how it came: one was yielded, one was taken by force. Today: two equally splendid wins, one earned head-on, one after the opponent withdrew injured — the podium does not taste the same.
核Check every citation
Every commentary line quoted in the video: the original wording, who said it, and the page in the base edition. “Paraphrase” marks our summary, not the commentator's words. About this edition
| Quoted text | Source | Page |
|---|---|---|
| “韶，舜乐。武，武王乐。美者，声容之盛。善者，美之实也。舜绍尧致治，武王伐纣救民，其功一也，故其乐皆尽美” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 50 |
| “然舜之德，性之也，又以揖逊而有天下；武王之德，反之也，又以征诛而得天下，故其实有不同者” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 50 |
| “成汤放桀，惟有惭德，武王亦然，故未尽善。尧舜汤武，其揆一也。征伐非其所欲，所遇之时然尔” | 朱注引程子（程颐） | page 50 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 韶 | 子谓韶 | sháo |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Ba yi (Book 3) 3.25 “The Shao is perfectly beautiful and perfectly good”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/ba-yi/25.html, version 2026-11-04.Last checked: 2026-11-04. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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