一孔录子曰：父母之年，不可不知也。一则以喜，一则以惧。The Master said: The ages of one's parents must not go unknown: on the one hand for joy, on the other for fear.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：父母的年纪不能不时时记在心里。一方面因他们长寿而欢喜，一方面因他们年老而担忧。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Read as “remember your parents' birthdays”.
注Key words in the commentary
Zhu Xi: “知，犹记忆也” — to know here means to keep in memory; “常知父母之年，则既喜其寿，又惧其衰，而于爱日之诚，自有不能已者” — always knowing their ages, one is glad of their long life and fears their decline, and one's sincere cherishing of the days cannot cease.
家What other commentators say
(This episode gives only Zhu Xi.)
读How Yikonglu reads it
Joy and fear are the same fact: one more day lived is one day fewer left. Today: the phone calendar reminds you of a parent's birthday once a year, and the number grows every year.
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
“云父母之年不可不知也者，人子有父母者，必宜知父母之年多少也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | fairly sure | 知父母年龄，一喜其寿、一惧其衰；朱以爱日诚孝释忧喜并存，杨译保留双面情感。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同训知为常记父母之年，喜其寿而惧其衰、来日少；钱强调喜惧同时并集，不分先后。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “知，犹记忆也。常知父母之年，则既喜其寿，又惧其衰，而于爱日之诚，自有不能已者” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 58 |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Li ren (Book 4) 4.21 “One must know the ages of one's parents”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/li-ren/21.html, version 2026-11-05.Last checked: 2026-11-05. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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