一孔录子曰：巧言令色，鲜矣仁！The Master said: Clever words and a pleasing face — rarely is there ren in them.
常The common reading
Anyone who talks nicely and looks agreeable is a bad person.
注Key words in the commentary
“巧，好；令，善也” — literally both words mean something good; the fault lies in “致饰于外，务以悦人” — polishing the outside, working only to please; “圣人辞不迫切，专言鲜，则绝无可知” — the sage's wording is not harsh: he says only “rarely”, and we can tell he means “never”.
读How Yikonglu reads it
Watch whether he does it to get the thing done, or only to be liked.
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.
| Quoted text | Source | Page |
|---|---|---|
| “巧，好；令，善也” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 15 |
| “致饰于外，务以悦人；人欲肆而本心之德亡矣” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 15 |
| “心之德（1.2 朱注“仁者，爱之理，心之德也”）” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 14 |
| “圣人辞不迫切，专言鲜，则绝无可知” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 15 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 令 | 令色 | lìng |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Xue er (Book 1) 1.3 “Clever words and a pleasing face”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/xue-er/3.html, version 2026-11-03.Last checked: 2026-11-03. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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