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.
葉公語孔子曰：吾黨有直躬者，其父攘羊，而子證之。孔子曰：吾黨之直者異於是。父為子隱，子為父隱，直在其中矣。The Duke of She said to Confucius: In my village there is an upright man. When his father stole a sheep, the son bore witness against him. Confucius said: The upright in my village are different. The father covers for the son, and the son covers for the father. Uprightness lies in this.
What this chapter says
一孔按：父子之间互相不出面指证，是人情之常。“隐”是不出来指证、关起门劝改，不是帮着造假。今天的刑事诉讼法也不强制近亲属出庭作证。
Yikonglu's reading of this chapter is in Chinese for now; the English version comes with the video.
白Plain Chinese
叶公告诉孔子，乡里有个正直的人，父亲偷羊，儿子作证告发；孔子说，我乡里的直者不同，父亲为儿子隐瞒，儿子为父亲隐瞒，直道就在其中。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
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Connections
- People
- Disputed reading
- Yikonglu reads it as “A, with B's boundary”. 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.
核Zhu Xi's commentary, line by line
Zhu Xi's own words on each line of this chapter, each checked against the base-edition page. Other commentators are added when the chapter is covered. About this edition
| Line | Quoted text | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 叶公语孔子曰：吾 | “直躬，直身而行者。有因而盗曰攘。” | page 181 |
| 父为子隐，子为父 | “父子相隐，天理人情之至也。故不求为直，而直在其中。” | page 181 |
| 父为子隐，子为父 | “顺理为直。父不为子隐，子不为父隐，于理顺邪？瞽瞍杀人，舜窃负而逃，遵海滨而处。当是时，爱亲之心胜，其于直不直，何暇计哉？” | page 181 |
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 七
“云葉公云云者，葉公稱己鄉黨中有直躬之人，欲自矜誇於孔子也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 证为揭发父攘羊，孔子以父子相隐为直；朱理据天理人情，杨明系孝慈伦理，非现代证据证明一词。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同解直躬为行直者、父子相隐本于亲情，不以讦父攘羊才算直；钱不定躬为人名，朱亦作直身而行。 |
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