一孔录子曰：孟之反不伐，奔而殿。将入门，策其马，曰：非敢后也，马不进也。The Master said: Meng Zhifan does not boast. When the army fled, he guarded the rear. As they were about to enter the gate, he whipped his horse and said: It is not that I dared to stay behind; my horse would not go forward.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：孟之反从不表功。打了败仗撤退，他留在最后掩护；快进城门时，才拿鞭子打着马说：不是我敢落在后面，是这马跑不动。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
He was the one who covered the retreat: why wouldn't he own it?
注Key words in the commentary
“殿，去声” — “dian” in the departing tone; “伐，夸功也” — “fa” is boasting of merit; “奔，败走也。军后曰殿” — “ben” is fleeing in defeat; the rear of an army is called “dian”; “策，鞭也” — “ce” is a whip; Hu dates the event to the battle between Qi and Lu in the eleventh year of Duke Ai.
家What other commentators say
Xie: “人能操无欲上人之心，则人欲日消，天理日明，而凡可以矜己夸人者，皆无足道矣……若孟之反，可以为法矣” — if one can keep a heart with no wish to rise above others, selfish desire wanes daily and heavenly principle grows clearer daily, and everything one might pride oneself on before others becomes not worth mentioning … one like Meng Zhifan can be taken as a model.
读How Yikonglu reads it
Holding the rear against the enemy in a rout is great merit, yet as they neared the city gate he whipped his horse and said, “It wasn't that I dared to stay behind; the horse wouldn't go.” Passing the credit to his horse shows a heart with no wish to rise above others.
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 三
“云孟之反不伐者，魯臣也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以孟之反败军殿后有功而不自夸，入门策马是假言马不进以掩其功；不伐为本章着重。 |
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. About this edition
| Quoted text | Source | Page |
|---|---|---|
| “殿，去声。孟之反……事在哀公十一年” | 朱注；朱注引胡氏 | page 83 page 84 |
| “谢氏曰：人能操无欲上人之心……可以为法矣” | Xie Liangzuo, quoted by Zhu Xi | page 84 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 伐 | 不伐 | fá |
| 殿 | 奔而殿、军后曰殿 | diàn |
| 策 | 策其马、策，鞭也 | cè |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects 雍也第六 6.13 “He covered the retreat: why wouldn't he admit it?”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/yong-ye/13.html, version 2026-11-05.Last checked: 2026-11-05. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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