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.
子曰：性相近也，習相遠也。The Master said: By nature people are close to one another; by practice they grow far apart.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说，人的禀性原来相近，经过不同的习染，才渐渐相距很远。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
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Connections
- Other books
- SourceThree Character Classic 1: The two lines “By nature people are close; by practice they grow far apart” (性相近，习相远) come straight from Confucius's own words.
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.
见Cross-references
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 九
“云子曰云云者，性者，人所稟以生也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | 性 | word sense | settled | 杨直译性情近、习染使远，朱明确限气质之性并别于本性皆善；不能把朱性论分层冒作杨译文原义。 |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以相近而习后相远说明学习环境重要。钱不从宋儒把气质之性与纯善本性分两层作孔子本义，朱明确以气质之性释本章。 |
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