雍也第六 · chapter 2Why is Confucius' “love of learning” not about reading a lot?

家What other commentators say

Master Cheng: “颜子之怒，在物不在己，故不迁。有不善未尝不知，知之未尝复行，不贰过也” — Yanzi's anger lay in the thing, not in himself, so it did not shift; whenever there was something not good he always knew it, and having known it never did it again: that is not repeating a fault; “喜怒在事，则理之当喜怒者也，不在血气则不迁” — when joy and anger lie in the matter, they are what principle calls for; not lying in the blood and breath, they do not shift; “如鉴之照物，妍媸在彼，随物应之而已” — like a mirror reflecting things, beauty and ugliness are in them; it simply responds to each. Master Zhang: “慊于己者，不使萌于再” — what dissatisfies oneself is not allowed to sprout a second time. Master Cheng on learning: “学以至乎圣人之道” — learning is to reach the Way of the sage; “约其情使合于中，正其心，养其性” — restrain the feelings to accord with the mean, rectify the heart, nourish the nature; and he ends mocking “今人乃谓圣本生知，非学可至，而所以为学者，不过记诵文辞之间，其亦异乎颜子之学矣” — people now say sagehood is innate and cannot be reached by learning, and their learning is nothing but memorising and composing — far from Yanzi's learning.