一孔录子曰：放于利而行，多怨。The Master said: One who acts by leaning on profit draws much resentment.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：一切依着利益去做，会招来很多怨恨。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Is this “trade breeds hatred,” or “profit is a bad thing”?
注Key words in the commentary
fang read in the rising tone, meaning to lean on; Zhu Xi cites Kong Anguo: “放，依也。多怨，谓多取怨” — fang means to rely on; much resentment means drawing much resentment onto oneself.
家What other commentators say
Cheng Yi: “欲利于己，必害于人，故多怨” — wanting profit for oneself must harm others, hence much resentment.
读How Yikonglu reads it
The resentment does not come from the word “profit”; it comes from profiting only oneself. Today: the flatmate who never buys the shared things and uses them most finds no one seeing him off the day he moves out.
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 · Zhibuzu Zhai edition · juan 二
“云放於利而行者，放，依也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | 怨 | differs | fairly sure | 钱主取自己对外多怨；朱释多取他人之怨。放字均取依从，不取放纵。 |
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 放读仿、依据，依利行事易招怨；朱释放为依，非放弃利益的放。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “放，依也。多怨，谓多取怨” | 朱注引孔氏 | page 55 |
| “欲利于己，必害于人，故多怨” | Cheng Yi, quoted by Zhu Xi | page 55 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 放 | 放于利、放依也 | fǎng |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Li ren (Book 4) 4.12 “Act by what profits you, and resentment multiplies”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/li-ren/12.html, version 2026-11-04.Last checked: 2026-11-04. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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