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.
子之武城，聞絃歌之聲。夫子莞爾而笑，曰：割雞焉用牛刀？子游對曰：昔者偃也聞諸夫子曰：君子學道則愛人，小人學道則易使也。子曰：二三子！偃之言是也。前言戲之耳。The Master went to Wucheng and heard the sound of strings and singing. The Master smiled and said: Why use an ox knife to kill a chicken? Ziyou replied: Some time ago I heard you say, Master: 'When the gentleman learns the Way, he loves others; when the petty man learns the Way, he is easy to employ.' The Master said: My friends, what Yan says is right. What I said before was only a joke.
白Plain Chinese
孔子到武城听见弦歌，微笑着说宰鸡何必用宰牛的刀，子游便引孔子从前的话，说明在位者学道就爱人，百姓学道就容易使唤。孔子对学生们说，言偃说得对，自己先前的话只是玩笑。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
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Connections
- Same line elsewhere
- Analects 17.7 佛肸召，子欲往。子路曰：昔者……
- People
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
- 子之武城，闻弦歌 Commentary：时子游为武城宰，以礼乐为教，故邑人皆弦歌也。（朱熹《论语集注》卷九·阳货第4章（底本第 233 页））
- 夫子莞尔而笑，曰 Commentary：莞尔，小笑貌，盖喜之也。（朱熹《论语集注》卷九·阳货第4章（底本第 233 页））
- 子游对曰：昔者偃 Elsewhere in the Analects：子路曰：昔者由也闻诸夫子曰：亲于其身为不善者，君子不入也。（《论语》集注分章17.7（底本第 235 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 九
“云子之云云者，之，往也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 武城礼乐弦歌、小邑也须教，牛刀为戏；朱明君子小人以位言，杨亦官与百姓，不是善人与恶人。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以子游武城弦歌礼乐化民，割鸡牛刀为喜而戏，后明言偃是，非孔子反对小邑讲礼乐。 |
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