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.
子曰：善人教民七年，亦可以即戎矣。The Master said: When a good man has taught the people for seven years, they too can be sent to war.
What this chapter says
一孔按：善人教民七年，也可以让他们去作战了。教的是孝弟忠信之行与务农讲武之法，民知亲上死长，才可用。常有人问：“善人教民七年，亦可以即戎矣”，为什么要先教再用？上面是一孔录的回答。
Yikonglu's reading of this chapter is in Chinese for now; the English version comes with the video.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说，善人教导百姓七年，也可以让他们从军作战了。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
看Watch this chapter
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Connections
- Other books
- Read alongside (Yikonglu)Daodejing 30: Laozi says “do not use arms to dominate the world,” and Confucius says the people must be taught for seven years before they go to war. Neither takes up arms lightly.
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
“善人教民七年，亦可以即戎矣”，为什么要先教再用？
注Key words in the commentary
教民者，教之以孝弟忠信之行，务农讲武之法。即，就也。戎，兵也。民知亲其上、死其长，故可以即戎。
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 子曰：善人教民七 | “教民者，教之以孝弟忠信之行，务农讲武之法。即，就也。戎，兵也。民知亲其上、死其长，故可以即戎。” | page 185—186 |
| 子曰：善人教民七 | “七年云者，圣人度其时可矣。如云期月、三年、百年、一世、大国五年、小国七年之类，皆当思其作为如何，乃有益。” | page 185—186 |
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
“云子曰善人，賢人也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | same | settled | 教民后可即戎、戎为兵事；朱兼教孝悌农武，不是只演练军事技术七年即保胜。 | |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以善人教民日久、民亲上死长才可用兵，教包含德行及农武。钱以七年举奇数言久，朱以圣人度事之期须思作为。 |
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