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：唯女子與小人為難養也，近之則不孫，遠之則怨。The Master said: Women and petty men are the hardest to deal with. Keep them close and they become insolent; keep them at a distance and they resent it.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说，女子和仆役难以相处，过分亲近便不恭顺，疏远又会怨恨。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
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Connections
- Disputed reading
- Yikonglu reads it as “A”. See our note
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
“並稟陰陽間氣多，故其意淺促，所以難可養也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | 范围 | word sense | settled | 杨泛译女子小人难共处，朱特指臣妾仆隶；近不逊远怨的句义相同，不能把范围收窄说成杨也明定。 |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同把本章小人指家中仆隶，钱将女子明确为妾侍、养指御仆妾；朱亦从臣妾庄临慈畜说明，不把本章不加范围泛断所有女性。 |
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