一孔录子曰：能以礼让为国乎？何有？不能以礼让为国，如礼何？The Master said: Can one govern a state with ritual and yielding? What difficulty is there? If one cannot govern a state with ritual and yielding, what use is ritual?
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：能用礼让来治理国家吗？这有什么难的？不能用礼让来治理国家，又要礼做什么呢？
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Is this “good manners and modesty can run a country,” with “ritual-yielding” read as one word?
注Key words in the commentary
Zhu Xi: “让者，礼之实也。何有，言不难也” — yielding is the substance of ritual; “what is there” means it is not hard; “不然，则其礼文虽具，亦且无如之何矣，而况于为国乎” — otherwise, though the forms of ritual are all in place, nothing can be done with them, let alone governing a state.
家What other commentators say
Only Zhu Xi's commentary is shown in this episode.
读How Yikonglu reads it
Yielding is the lining inside ritual. When only the outward form is left, ritual itself no longer works, never mind governing a state. Today: a wedding banquet with every seat and formality in order, and the two families quarrel over who sits at the head table until the guests leave.
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
“云能以禮讓為國乎何有者，為，猶治也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 礼让是治国与礼仪的实质，徒有仪节不足；何有杨释有何困难，朱同释不难。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以让为礼之实，以礼让治国便不难；钱进一步强调上下双方互敬互让，反对把礼仅作尊君卑臣工具。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “让者，礼之实也。何有，言不难也” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 55 |
| “言有礼之实以为国，则何难之有。不然，则其礼文虽具，亦且无如之何矣，而况于为国乎” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 55 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 为 | 为国、中心为忠、如心为恕 | wéi |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Li ren (Book 4) 4.13 “Can one govern a state with ritual and yielding?”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/li-ren/13.html, version 2026-11-04.Last checked: 2026-11-04. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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