子曰:知者樂水,仁者樂山。知者動,仁者靜。知者樂,仁者壽。What this chapter says
一孔按:聪明人通达事理,像水流来流去不卡住;厚道人安于义理,像山厚重不挪动。动而不拘所以乐,静而有常所以寿。今例:一个爱沿江跑,一个爱在山亭坐一下午。常有人问“聪明人爱水,厚道人爱山,为什么”,上面是一孔录的回答。
白Plain Chinese
孔子说:明智的人喜爱水,仁厚的人喜爱山;明智的人好动,仁厚的人好静;明智的人快乐,仁厚的人长寿。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
看Watch this chapter
This chapter is read in Yikonglu episode “雍也七”:YouTubeBilibili
Connections
- Other books
- Read alongside (Yikonglu)Daodejing 8: Laozi says “the highest good is like water,” and Confucius says “the wise delight in water.” Confucians and Daoists both compare people to water.
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.
常The common reading
聪明人爱水,厚道人爱山,为什么?
注Key words in the commentary
“乐,喜好也”;朱熹读“要”,这里照今音读 lè。“动静以体言,乐寿以效言也”:前两个“乐”是喜好,“知者乐”的“乐”是快乐。
说What other commentators say
程子“非体仁知之深者,不能如此形容之”。
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
“此章極辨智仁之分,陸特進明智仁之用。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以水周流无滞譬知、山厚重不迁譬仁。动静定位略异:钱言先性次用,朱明确动静以体、乐寿以效。 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| “乐,喜好也……故寿。程子曰:非体仁知之深者,不能如此形容之” | 朱注;朱注引程子 | page 86 |
音Pronunciation
| Character | In the line | Read as |
|---|---|---|
| 知 | 知者乐水、知者动、知者乐、知者达于事理、仁知 | zhì |
| 乐 | 乐水、乐山、乐,喜好也、故乐水、故乐山、X1“我乐水,也乐山” | lè |
| 乐 | 知者乐、乐寿、故乐 | lè |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects 雍也第六 6.21 “知者乐水,仁者乐山”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/yong-ye/21.html, version 2026-11-15.Last checked: 2026-11-15. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
Found an error in this chapter? Email us; once checked, it goes on the errata page under your username: 

