一孔录子曰：臧文仲居蔡，山节藻棁，何如其知也？The Master said: Zang Wenzhong housed a great tortoise, with hills carved on the capitals and water-weeds painted on the king-posts. How can he be called wise?
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：臧文仲专为一只占卜用的大龟造屋收藏，柱头斗栱雕成山形，梁上短柱绘满水草，这样的人，称得上明智吗？
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Zang Wenzhong was learned and widely informed, and everyone at the time thought him clever.
注Key words in the commentary
“居，犹藏也。蔡，大龟也” — “ju” means to store; “Cai” is a great tortoise; “节，柱头斗栱” — “jie” are the bracket sets on the column heads; “梲，梁上短柱” — “zhuo” are the short posts on the beams; “知” is read as “zhi”, wisdom.
家What other commentators say
Zhu Xi: “不务民义，而谄渎鬼神如此，安得为知” — not attending to what is right for the people, but flattering and profaning spirits like this — how could he be wise?; “春秋传所谓作虚器，即此事也” — what the Zuo Commentary calls “making empty vessels” is this very affair. He cites Zhang Zai: “山节藻梲为藏龟之室，祀爰居之义，同归于不知宜矣” — the carved chamber for the tortoise and the sacrifice to the yuanju bird come to the same thing: not knowing what is fitting.
读How Yikonglu reads it
Not putting his mind to what the people needed, and courting spirits instead, does not count as wisdom. Today: business is slow, and instead of asking customers, the owner spends a fortune turning the shop door to face another way.
家Other commentaries
Our base text is Zhu Xi's Collected Commentaries (above). Here are other commentaries side by side: for old commentaries, the first line of the sub-commentary with a link to the woodblock scan; for modern editions, one short quoted translation for comparison. The “compared with Zhu Xi” notes are written by Yikonglu, not quoted.
皇侃《论语义疏》Liang dynasty · 1750 Japanese woodblock edition · juan 三
“云臧文仲居蔡者，居猶畜也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以居蔡为藏大龟、山节藻棁为藏龟室饰，非务民义而谄鬼求福故不足为知；钱另辨山藻原为天子庙饰。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “臧文仲，鲁大夫臧孙氏，名辰。居，犹藏也。蔡，大龟也。节，柱头斗栱也。藻，水草名。梲，梁上短柱也。盖为藏龟之室，而刻山于节、画藻于梲也” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 69 |
| “当时以文仲为知，孔子言其不务民义，而谄渎鬼神如此，安得为知？春秋传所谓作虚器，即此事也” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 69 |
| “张子曰：山节藻梲为藏龟之室，祀爰居之义，同归于不知宜矣” | 朱注引张子 | page 69 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 臧 | 臧文仲、臧孙氏 | zāng |
| 知 | 何如其知也、以文仲为知、安得为知、同归于不知 | zhì |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects 公冶长第五 5.17 “Was Zang Wenzhong really clever?”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/gong-ye-chang/17.html, version 2026-11-05.Last checked: 2026-11-05. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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