一孔录子曰：苟志于仁矣，无恶也。The Master said: If one truly sets one's heart on humaneness, there will be no evil.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：如果真正立志于仁，就不会做坏事了。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Once you have made up your mind, you will never make mistakes.
注Key words in the commentary
e (evil) read in its usual tone; “苟，诚也” — gou means truly; “志者，心之所之也” — will is where the heart goes; “其心诚在于仁，则必无为恶之事矣” — if the heart is truly set on humaneness, there will certainly be no evil deeds.
家What other commentators say
Yang Shi: “苟志于仁，未必无过举也，然而为恶则无矣” — setting one's heart on humaneness does not mean never erring, but there will be no doing of evil.
读How Yikonglu reads it
Resolve does not guarantee no mistakes; it guarantees no intention to do wrong. Today: a learner driver scrapes the car three times in a year but never once runs a red light.
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
“苟，誠也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | 恶 | differs | fairly sure | 钱主取好恶之恶，谓志仁者恶人仍本爱心；朱读善恶之恶，谓诚志仁便无为恶之事。钱亦存后读。 |
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | fairly sure | 真有志于仁则不为恶；朱区分过举与为恶，杨译未把偶然过失等同于无志于仁。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “苟，诚也。志者，心之所之也。其心诚在于仁，则必无为恶之事矣” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 52 |
| “苟志于仁，未必无过举也，然而为恶则无矣” | Yang Shi, quoted by Zhu Xi | page 52 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 恶 | 无恶也、为恶 | è |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Li ren (Book 4) 4.4 “Set your heart on humaneness and there is no evil”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/li-ren/4.html, version 2026-11-04.Last checked: 2026-11-04. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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