一孔录子在陈曰：归与！归与！吾党之小子狂简，斐然成章，不知所以裁之。When the Master was in Chen he said: Let us go home! Let us go home! The young men of my village are ambitious and careless; they have produced something of real pattern, but do not know how to cut it to shape.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子在陈国，感叹道：该回去了！该回去了！我家乡那班年轻人，志向远大而做事粗疏，文采已经斐然可观，却还不懂得怎样裁剪自己。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
After so many years travelling the states, what did Confucius go home to do?
注Key words in the commentary
“与” is read yú, a particle; “斐” is read fěi; “裁，割正也” — “cai” means to cut straight; “狂简，志大而略于事” — “ambitious and careless” means great aims but little attention to practical affairs.
家What other commentators say
Zhu Xi: “此孔子周流四方，道不行而思归之叹也” — this is Confucius' sigh of longing for home after wandering everywhere without his Way being put into practice; “夫子初心，欲行其道于天下，至是而知其终不用也。于是始欲成就后学，以传道于来世” — his original wish was to practise the Way across the world; by now he knew he would never be employed, so he began to want to form his students and pass the Way on to later ages; “不得中行之士而思其次……但恐其过中失正，而或陷于异端耳，故欲归而裁之也” — not finding men of the middle way, he thought of the next best, only fearing they would overshoot the mean and fall into heterodoxy, so he wanted to go home and shape them.
读How Yikonglu reads it
He turns from practising the Way to transmitting it; ambitious young men can advance in the Way, but risk overshooting, so he goes home to trim them. Today: a new hire's proposal has eight good ideas in ten pages, and still needs someone to help cut it down.
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
“云子在陳曰歸與歸與者，孔子周流諸國，在陳最久，將欲反魯，故發此辭。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以道不行思归教育后进、狂者志大而须裁成。钱主取不知为门人不知自裁，亦不把成章解为已作私家篇籍。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “此孔子周流四方，道不行而思归之叹也。吾党小子，指门人之在鲁者。狂简，志大而略于事也。斐，文貌。成章，言其文理成就，有可观者。裁，割正也” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 72 |
| “夫子初心，欲行其道于天下……故欲归而裁之也” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 72 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 与 | 归与 | yú |
| 斐 | 斐然 | fěi |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects 公冶长第五 5.21 “After so many years of travel, what did Confucius go home to do?”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/gong-ye-chang/21.html, version 2026-11-05.Last checked: 2026-11-05. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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