一孔录子曰：君子欲讷于言而敏于行。The Master said: The gentleman wishes to be slow in speech and quick in action.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：君子要言语谨慎迟钝，行动敏捷勤快。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Read as “the gentleman should talk little”, taking ne (讷) as poor speaking ability.
注Key words in the commentary
Ne (讷) means slow of speech. Zhu Xi cites Xie Liangzuo: “放言易，故欲讷；力行难，故欲敏” — loose talk is easy, so one wishes to be slow in it; vigorous action is hard, so one wishes to be quick in it.
家What other commentators say
Zhu Xi also cites Hu Yin: “自吾道一贯至此十章，疑皆曾子门人所记也” — the ten chapters from “my Way is threaded through by one” to here were perhaps all recorded by Zengzi's disciples. This is a conjecture, and Zhu Xi records it without settling it.
读How Yikonglu reads it
Of the easy end and the hard end, rein in the easy one (speaking) and spur on the hard one (doing). It is not refusing to speak, but not talking loosely.
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
“敏，疾速也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 言谨慎而行敏捷；杨据学而敏事慎言释行，朱以言难而行欲易明慎言力行，非赞成迟钝无为。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以言贵慎、行贵勤，须矫轻言与行缓；钱用变化气质说明可习成，朱引谢氏从放言易力行难说明。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “放言易，故欲讷；力行难，故欲敏” | Xie Liangzuo, quoted by Zhu Xi | page 59 |
| “自吾道一贯至此十章，疑皆曾子门人所记也” | 朱注引胡氏 | page 59 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 讷 | 讷于言 | nè |
| 行 | 敏于行 | xìng |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Li ren (Book 4) 4.24 “The gentleman wishes to be slow in speech and quick in action”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/li-ren/24.html, version 2026-11-05.Last checked: 2026-11-05. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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