一孔录The video for this chapter is still in production. For now this page gives the original text, the facsimile page, a working translation and the commentary; the full reading follows when the video is out.
舜有臣五人而天下治。武王曰：予有亂臣十人。孔子曰：才難，不其然乎？唐、虞之際，於斯為盛。有婦人焉，九人而已。三分天下有其二，以服事殷。周之德，其可謂至德也已矣。Shun had five ministers and the realm was well governed. King Wu said: I have ten ministers who keep order. Confucius said: Talent is hard to find — is it not so? From the time of Tang and Yu, it flourished most in this age; and one of them was a woman, so there were only nine men. Holding two thirds of the realm, Zhou still served Yin. The virtue of Zhou may be called the highest virtue.
What this chapter says
一孔按：舜有贤臣五人而天下治，武王说有治臣十人。孔子叹人才难得，唐虞之际最盛；周有三分天下之二仍服事殷，所以说周之德是至德。常有人问：“才难，不其然乎”，人才为什么这么难得？上面是一孔录的回答。
Yikonglu's reading of this chapter is in Chinese for now; the English version comes with the video.
白Plain Chinese
舜手下有五个能臣，天下便安定了。周武王说：我有能治理天下的大臣十人。孔子说：俗话说人才难得，难道不对吗？唐虞交替之后，要数武王这一代人才最多，十人中还有一位妇人，男子只有九位而已。文王时周已占有三分天下中的两分，却依旧以臣礼侍奉殷商。周的德行，可以说是到了顶点了。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
看Watch this chapter
The video for this chapter is in production and will appear here. Follow Yikonglu to see it first:YouTubeBilibili
Connections
- Same line elsewhere
- Analects 8.1 泰伯，其可謂至德也已矣！三以……
- Other books
- Read alongside (Yikonglu)Three Character Classic 19: “Tang and You Yu” (唐有虞) refers to Yao and Shun. Shun governed the world with five worthy ministers.
- Cited by commentatorsThree Character Classic 20: King Wu of Zhou's “ten ministers of 乱”: here 乱 means to govern, so these are ten ministers able to set disorder right.
- People
Shun7 chaptersKing Wu of Zhou3 chaptersThe womanKing Wen of Zhou3 chapters
Relationship map of the whole book · The Analects, AI-reconstructed edition (PDF)
Close reading and checking
For readers who want to go deeper or check our work: key words in the commentary, what other commentators say, textual variants, the commentaries in their own words with facsimile pages, pronunciation and corrections. Tap a heading to open it.
常The common reading
“才难，不其然乎”，人才为什么这么难得？
注Key words in the commentary
五人，禹、稷、契、皋陶、伯益。
核Zhu Xi's commentary, line by line
Zhu Xi's own words on each line of this chapter, each checked against the base-edition page. Other commentators are added when the chapter is covered. About this edition
| Line | Quoted text | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 舜有臣五人而天下 | “五人，禹、稷、契、皋陶、伯益。” | page 115 |
| 舜有臣五人而天下 | “称孔子者，上系武王君臣之际，记者谨之。才难，盖古语，而孔子然之也。才者，德之用也。唐虞，尧舜有天下之号。际，交会之间。言周室人才之多，惟唐虞之际，乃盛于此。降自夏商，皆不能及，然犹但有此数人尔，是才之难得也。” | page 115 |
| 三分天下有其二， | “春秋传曰：文王率商之畔国以事纣。盖天下归文王者六州，荆、梁、雍、豫、徐、扬也。惟青、兖、冀，尚属纣耳。” | page 115—116 |
| 三分天下有其二， | “或曰：宜断三分以下，别以孔子曰起之，而自为一章。” | page 115—116 |
| 周之德，其可谓至 | “书泰誓之辞。马氏曰：乱，治也。十人，谓周公旦、召公奭、太公望、毕公、荣公、太颠、闳夭、散宜生、南宫适，其一人谓文母。” | page 115 |
| 周之德，其可谓至 | “刘侍读以为子无臣母之义，盖邑姜也。九人治外，邑姜治内。或曰：乱本作乿，古治字也。” | page 115 |
见Cross-references
- 周之德，其可谓至 Elsewhere in the Analects：子曰：泰伯，其可谓至德也已矣！（《论语》集注分章8.1（底本第 106 页））
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 · 1750 Japanese woodblock edition · juan 四
“記者又美舜德也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 乱臣为治国臣而非叛臣；朱另议十人中妇人身份，杨注重点在才难及文王仍事殷，不强定人数背后新事实。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同训乱为治，乱臣为助治之臣，人才难得；钱讨论唐虞之际及妇人诸说，不能据十乱臣字面读为作乱者。 |
Found an error in this chapter? Email us; once checked, it goes on the errata page under your username: 
