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學行之，上也；言之，次也；教人，又其次也；鹹無焉，為眾人。

To put what one has learned into practice is the highest; to be able to relate it is next; to be able to teach it to others is next after that; one who has none of these is merely an ordinary person.

或曰：「人羨久生，將以學也，可謂好學已乎？」曰：「未之好也。學不羨。」

Someone said: "People admire long life so that they can use it for study; can that be called loving learning?" Yang Xiong said: "Not yet truly loving learning. One who truly loves learning does not make long life a condition for study."

天之道不在仲尼乎？仲尼駕說者也，不在茲儒乎？如將復駕其所說，則莫若使諸儒金口而木舌。

Is the Way of Heaven not in Confucius? Confucius was the one who carried this Way and handed it down; is it not now in these Confucians? If one wants to carry on what he handed down, it would be better to let the many Confucians be wooden-tongued bells with metal clappers, proclaiming and teaching just as Confucius did.

或曰：「學無益也，如質何？」曰：「未之思矣。夫有刀者礲諸，有玉者錯諸。不礲不錯，焉攸用？礲而錯諸，質在其中矣。否則輟。」

Someone said: "If study brings no benefit, what use is natural endowment?" Yang Xiong said: "That is not thought through. One who has a knife must whet it; one who has jade must polish it. Without whetting and polishing, what use are they? Once whetted and polished, the quality is within them. If one will not do this, then stop."

螟𧕅之子殪而逢，蜾蠃祝之曰：「類我，類我。」久則肖之矣。速哉，七十子之肖仲尼也！

When the young of the mingling moth die and a mud wasp comes upon them, the wasp prays over them: "Be like me, be like me." After a time they become like the wasp. If Confucius' seventy disciples were like Confucius, that would be quick indeed!

學以治之，思以精之，朋友以磨之，名譽以崇之，不倦以終之，可謂好學也已矣。

Use study to govern one's nature and feelings, use thought to refine them, use friends to hone and sharpen oneself, use reputation to elevate it, and use tirelessness to carry it through to the end; only then may one be called loving learning.

孔子習周公者也，顏淵習孔子者也。羿、逄蒙分其弓，良捨其策，般投其斧而習諸，孰曰非也？或曰：「此名也，彼名也，處一焉而已矣。」曰：「川有瀆，山有嶽，高而且大者，眾人所能踰也。」

Confucius was one who learned from the Duke of Zhou, and Yan Yuan was one who learned from Confucius. If Hou Yi and Peng Meng were willing to lay down their bows, Wang Liang to lay down his whip, and Gongshu Ban to cast down his axe, and all came to learn from the Duke of Zhou and Confucius, who could say it was wrong? Someone said: "This is one kind of fame and that is another; being in just one of them is enough." Yang Xiong said: "Among rivers there are great channels, and among hills there are the Five Peaks; those that are lofty and great are just what the multitude can climb and look up to."

或問：「世言鑄金，金可鑄與？」曰：「吾聞覿君子者，問鑄人，不問鑄金。」或曰：「人可鑄與？」曰：「孔子鑄顏淵矣。」或人踧爾曰：「旨哉！問鑄金，得鑄人。」

Someone asked: "The world speaks of casting gold; can gold truly be cast?" Yang Xiong said: "I have heard that those who go to see a gentleman ask how to cast a person, not how to cast gold." Someone said: "Can a person be cast too?" Yang Xiong said: "Confucius has already cast Yan Yuan." The man respectfully marveled: "How meaningful! I asked about casting gold and received an answer about casting a person."

學者，所以修性也。視、聽、言、貌、思，性所有也。學則正，否則邪。

Learning is what is used to cultivate one's nature. Seeing, hearing, speaking, appearance and thought are all part of one's nature. With learning they are upright; without learning they are crooked.

師哉！師哉！桐子之命也。務學不如務求師。師者，人之模範也。模不模，範不範，為不少矣。

Teachers! Teachers! On them the fate of a child hangs. Striving at study is not as good as striving to find a teacher. A teacher is a person's model. Models that do not resemble a model and molds that do not resemble a mold are truly not few.

一閧之市，不勝異意焉；一卷之書，不勝異說焉。一閧之市，必立之平；一卷之書，必立之師。

A single market street cannot hold so many different asking prices; a single scroll of text cannot hold so many different explanations. A single market street must set one fair market price; a single scroll of text must set one teacher.

習乎習！以習非之勝是也，況習是之勝非乎？於戲，學者審其是而已矣！或曰：「焉知是而習之？」曰：「視日月而知眾星之蔑也，仰聖人而知眾說之小也。」

Habit! Habit! The force of habituation to error can overcome what is right, so how much more can habituation to what is right overcome error? Alas, a student need only examine what is right! Someone said: "How can one know what is right so as to become habituated to it?" Yang Xiong said: "When you see the sun and moon, you know how faint the stars are; when you look up at the sage, you know how tiny the various doctrines are."

學之為王者事，其已久矣。堯、舜、禹、湯、文、武汲汲，仲尼皇皇，其已久矣。

Study has been the proper work of a king for a very long time. Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, King Wen and King Wu pursued learning with urgency, and Confucius pursued learning in haste; all of this has been so for a very long time.

或問「進」。曰：「水。」或曰：「為其不捨晝夜與？」曰：「有是哉！滿而後漸者，其水乎？」或問「鴻漸」。曰：「非其往不往，非其居不居，漸猶水乎！」「請問木漸。」曰：「止於下而漸於上者，其木也哉！亦猶水而已矣。」

Someone asked about "advancing". Yang Xiong said: "Like water." Someone said: "Because it does not stop day or night?" Yang Xiong said: "There is something in that! Is it not water that fills up and then soaks forward?" Someone asked about "the wild goose's gradual progress" (in the Book of Changes, the hexagram Jian takes the wild goose as its image). Yang Xiong said: "Not going where it should not go, and not stopping where it should not stop, advancing thus gradually, is still like water!" "May I ask about the gradual growth of trees?" Yang Xiong said: "Is it not trees that are rooted below and grow gradually upward? That too is just like water."

吾未見斧藻其德若斧藻其楶者也。

I have never seen anyone who takes as much trouble to adorn his own virtue as he does to adorn the short posts on the roof beams.

鳥獸觸其情者也，眾人則異乎！賢人則異眾人矣，聖人則異賢人矣。禮義之作，有以矣夫。人而不學，雖無憂，如禽何？

Birds and beasts follow wherever their desires are stirred; ordinary people should be different from them! Worthy persons are again different from ordinary people, and sages again different from worthy persons. Rites (the forms and rules of ceremony) were made for good reason. If a person does not learn, then even without troubles, what difference is there between him and the birds and beasts?

學者，所以求為君子也。求而不得者有矣，夫未有不求而得之者也。

Learning is the means of seeking to be a gentleman. There are those who seek and do not obtain, but there has never been one who obtained without seeking.

睎驥之馬，亦驥之乘也。睎顏之人，亦顏之徒也。或曰：「顏徒易乎？」曰：「睎之則是。」曰：「昔顏嘗睎夫子矣，正考甫嘗睎尹吉甫矣，公子奚斯嘗睎尹吉甫矣。不欲睎則已矣，如欲睎，孰禦焉？」

A horse that looks up to a thousand-mile steed becomes a mount of the thousand-mile kind; a person who looks up to Yan Yuan becomes a person of Yan Yuan's kind. Someone said: "Is it easy to be a disciple of Yan Yuan?" Yang Xiong said: "If one is willing to look up to him, that is it." He also said: "In the past Yan Yuan looked up to Confucius, Zheng Kaofu looked up to Yin Jifu, and Prince Xi Si looked up to Yin Jifu. If you do not wish to look up to someone, so be it; if you do wish to, who can stop you?"

或曰：「書與經同，而世不尚，治之可乎？」曰：「可。」或人啞爾笑曰：「須以發策決科。」曰：「大人之學也為道，小人之學也為利。子為道乎？為利乎？」或曰：「耕不穫，獵不饗，耕獵乎？」曰：「耕道而得道，獵德而得德，是穫饗已，吾不覩參、辰之相比也。」是以君子貴遷善。遷善者，聖人之徒與！百川學海而至於海，丘陵學山不至於山，是故惡夫畫也。

Someone said: "There are some books that agree with the Classics but that the world does not esteem; may one study them?" Yang Xiong said: "One may." The man laughed silently and said: "Surely one must rely on them to pass examinations and obtain a degree." Yang Xiong said: "The learning of the great person is for the sake of the Way; the learning of the small person is for the sake of profit. Are you for the Way, or for profit?" Someone said: "If I plow and get no harvest, hunt and get nothing to eat, should I still plow and hunt?" Yang Xiong said: "Plow the Way and you obtain the Way; hunt for virtue and you obtain virtue; that is already the harvest and the catch. I have never seen the stars Shen and Chen appear side by side (an image meaning that the Way and profit cannot coexist)." Therefore the gentleman values moving toward the good. One who can move toward the good is surely a disciple of the sage! A hundred rivers study the sea and so reach the sea, but hills study the mountains and cannot reach the mountains; so what is most to be disliked is giving up halfway and drawing a line to stop oneself.

頻頻之黨，甚於𪇬斯，亦賊夫糧食而已矣。朋而不心，面朋也；友而不心，面友也。

Those who form cliques and come and go in crowds, worse even than the crows, do no more than waste grain. To be a companion without opening one's heart face to face is only an outward companion; to be a friend without opening one's heart face to face is only an outward friend.

或謂：「子之治產，不如丹圭之富。」曰：「吾聞先生相與言，則以仁與義；市井相與言，則以財與利。如其富，如其富！」或曰：「先生生無以養也，死無以葬也，如之何？」曰：「以其所以養，養之至也；以其所以葬，葬之至也。」

Someone said: "In running a business, you are not as wealthy as Dan Gui." Yang Xiong said: "I have heard that virtuous gentlemen, when together, talk of benevolence (the original heart of loving people and things) and righteousness (each matter getting its due); people of the marketplace, when together, talk of wealth and profit. What of that wealth! What of that wealth!" Someone said: "If, while alive, you cannot provide for yourself, and when dead cannot be buried, what then?" Yang Xiong said: "To provide for oneself with the very principles that ought to be used for providing is the utmost of providing; to bury with the very principles that ought to be used for burying is the utmost of burying."

或曰：「猗頓之富以為孝，不亦至乎？顏其餒矣！」曰：「彼以其粗，顏以其精；彼以其回，顏以其貞。顏其劣乎？顏其劣乎？」

Someone said: "Practicing filial piety with the wealth of a Yi Dun, is that not the utmost? Yan Yuan would go hungry!" Yang Xiong said: "That man uses the coarse, Yan Yuan uses the refined; that man uses the crooked, Yan Yuan uses the straight. Was Yan Yuan lacking? Was Yan Yuan lacking?"

或曰：「使我紆朱懷金，其樂可量也。」曰：「紆朱懷金者之樂，不如顏氏子之樂。顏氏子之樂也內，紆朱懷金者之樂也外。」或曰：「請問屢空之內。」曰：「顏不孔，雖得天下，不足以為樂。」「然亦有苦乎？」曰：「顏苦孔之卓之至也。」或人瞿然曰：「茲苦也，祇其所以為樂也與！」

Someone said: "If I were made to wear a vermilion sash and carry a gold seal in my bosom, the joy would be beyond measure." Yang Xiong said: "The joy of one who wears a vermilion sash and carries a gold seal does not compare with the joy of Yan Yuan. Yan Yuan's joy is within; the joy of one who wears a vermilion sash and carries a gold seal is without." Someone said: "May I ask what that inner joy is, amid repeated poverty?" Yang Xiong said: "If Yan Yuan were not like Confucius, then even if he gained the world it would not be enough for joy." "Then is there also bitterness?" Yang Xiong said: "What Yan Yuan found bitter was that Confucius' excellence reached its utmost and he could not catch up." The man exclaimed in astonishment: "This very bitterness must be the reason for his joy!"

曰：「有教立道，無止仲尼；有學術業，無止顏淵。」或曰：「立道，仲尼不可為思矣。術業，顏淵不可為力矣。」曰：「未之思也，孰禦焉？」

Yang Xiong said: "With teaching in place and the Way established, no one can stop the influence of Confucius; with learning and the practice of one's work, no one can stop Yan Yuan." Someone said: "As to establishing the Way, Confucius cannot be reached by thought; as to practicing one's work, Yan Yuan cannot be reached by strength." Yang Xiong said: "That is because you have not thought about it; who can stop you?"

或問：「吾子少而好賦。」曰：「然。童子彫蟲篆刻。」俄而曰：「壯夫不為也。」或曰：「賦可以諷乎？」曰：「諷乎！諷則已；不已，吾恐不免於勸也。」或曰：「霧縠之組麗。」曰：「女工之蠹矣。」《劒客論》曰：「劒可以愛身。」曰：「狴犴使人多禮乎？」

Someone asked: "In your youth you liked writing rhapsodies." Yang Xiong said: "Yes. That was a child's minor craft, like insect-carving and seal-engraving." After a while he added: "A grown man does not do this." Someone said: "Can a rhapsody be used for remonstrance?" Yang Xiong said: "Remonstrance! If it can serve as remonstrance, well and good; if it cannot stop the thing, I fear it would only end up urging people to take up those very pursuits." Someone said: "Woven as splendidly as misty gauze." Yang Xiong said: "That is the bane of women's work." The Jianke Lun says: "A sword can be used to protect oneself." Yang Xiong said: "Can a prison make a person more courteous?"

或問：「景差、唐勒、宋玉、枚乘之賦也，益乎？」曰：「必也淫。」「淫則柰何？」曰：「詩人之賦麗以則，辭人之賦麗以淫。如孔氏之門用賦也，則賈誼升堂，相如入室矣。如其不用何？」

Someone asked: "Do the rhapsodies of Jing Cha, Tang Le, Song Yu and Mei Cheng bring any benefit?" Yang Xiong said: "They must be excessive in their elaboration." "And what if they are excessive?" Yang Xiong said: "The rhapsodies of the poets are splendid yet orderly; the rhapsodies of the rhetoricians are splendid yet excessive. If rhapsodies had been of use in Confucius' school, then Jia Yi could have ascended the hall and Sima Xiangru could have entered the inner chamber. But they were not used, so what can be done?"

或問蒼蠅紅、紫，曰：「明視。」問鄭、衛之似，曰：「聰聽。」或曰：「朱、曠不世，如之何？」曰：「亦精之而已矣。」

Someone asked about the red and purple of the fly, and Yang Xiong said: "Make your eyesight clear." Asked about the near-right but wrong music of Zheng and Wei, Yang Xiong said: "Make your hearing keen." Someone said: "Li Zhu and Shi Kuang do not appear in every age; what then?" Yang Xiong said: "It is only a matter of using sight and hearing with refinement."

或問：「交五聲、十二律也，或雅或鄭，何也？」曰：「中正則雅，多哇則鄭。」「請問本。」曰：「黃鍾以生之，中正以平之，確乎鄭、衛不能入也！」

Someone asked: "When the five notes and twelve pitch pipes are combined, some become elegant and some become Zheng-style; why?" Yang Xiong said: "What is balanced and upright is elegant; what is excessively licentious is Zheng-style." "May I ask about the root?" Yang Xiong said: "Let it arise from the Huangzhong pipe, and level it with what is balanced and upright, and the music of Zheng and Wei will certainly not get in!"

或曰：「女有色，書亦有色乎？」曰：「有。女惡華丹之亂窈窕也，書惡淫辭之淈法度也。」

Someone said: "Women have beauty; do books also have beauty?" Yang Xiong said: "They do. What a woman most dislikes is white powder and rouge confusing her natural beauty; what a book most dislikes is licentious language confusing its standards."

或問：「屈原智乎？」曰：「如玉如瑩，爰變丹青。如其智！如其智！」

Someone asked: "Was Qu Yuan wise?" Yang Xiong said: "Like jade, like a gem, yet he became red and blue pigment. That wisdom! That wisdom!"

或問：「君子尚辭乎？」曰：「君子事之為尚。事勝辭則伉，辭勝事則賦，事、辭稱則經。足言足容，德之藻矣。」

Someone asked: "Does the gentleman value literary elegance?" Yang Xiong said: "What the gentleman values is substance. When substance outweighs style it is stiff; when style outweighs substance it is like a rhapsody; when substance and style match, it is a classic. When words are full and demeanor is full, that is the literary brilliance of virtue."

或問：「公孫龍詭辭數萬以為法，法與？」曰：「斷木為棊，捖革為鞠，亦皆有法焉。不合乎先王之法者，君子不法也。」

Someone asked: "Gongsun Long used tens of thousands of words of sophistry as his rules; are those rules?" Yang Xiong said: "Cutting wood to make chess pieces and kneading leather to make balls also each have their methods. Whatever does not accord with the ways of the former kings, the gentleman does not take as a rule."

觀書者譬諸觀山及水，升東嶽而知眾山之邐迤也，況介丘乎？浮滄海而知江河之惡沱也，況枯澤乎？舍舟航而濟乎瀆者，末矣；舍五經而濟乎道者，末矣。棄常珍而嗜乎異饌者，惡覩其識味也？委大聖而好乎諸子者，惡覩其識道也？

Reading books is like viewing mountains and rivers: only after climbing the Eastern Peak do you know how the other mountains stretch low and flat, let alone the little hills? Only after floating on the great sea do you know how muddy and cramped the rivers are, let alone dried-up marshes? To abandon the boat to cross a great river is the poor course; to abandon the Five Classics to seek the Way is the poor course. To cast aside everyday delicacies to relish strange dishes, how could anyone tell that he knows flavor? To set aside the great sage and delight in the various masters, how could anyone tell that he knows the Way?

山𡷨之蹊，不可勝由矣；向牆之戶，不可勝入矣。曰：「惡由入？」曰：「孔氏。孔氏者，戶也。」曰：「子戶乎？」曰：「戶哉！戶哉！吾獨有不戶者矣。」

The paths on the mountain are too many to walk, and the doors facing the wall are too many to enter. Someone asked: "By which to walk, by which to enter?" Yang Xiong said: "By Confucius. Confucius is that door." Someone asked: "Have you yourself entered this door?" Yang Xiong said: "The door! The door! I have still got places I have not been able to enter."

或欲學《蒼頡》《史篇》。曰：「史乎！史乎！愈於妄闕也。」

Someone wanted to study the Cang Jie and the Shi Pian. Yang Xiong said: "Histories! Histories! They are still better than baseless guesses, gaps and errors."

或曰：「有人焉，自雲姓孔而字仲尼，入其門，升其堂，伏其幾，襲其裳，則可謂仲尼乎？」曰：「其文是也，其質非也。」「敢問質。」曰：「羊質而虎皮，見草而說，見豺而戰，忘其皮之虎矣。」

Someone said: "Suppose there were a person who called himself surnamed Kong with the courtesy name Zhongni; if one entered his gate, went up his hall, leaned on his table and put on his clothes, could he be called Zhongni?" Yang Xiong said: "In outward form, yes; in substance, no." "May I ask about the substance?" Yang Xiong said: "A sheep's nature wearing a tiger's skin is glad on seeing grass and trembles on seeing a jackal, having quite forgotten that the skin on its body is a tiger's."

聖人虎別，其文炳也。君子豹別，其文蔚也。辯人貍別，其文萃也。貍變則豹，豹變則虎。

The sage is distinct like the tiger, his markings brilliant; the gentleman is distinct like the leopard, his markings lustrous; the debater is distinct like the wildcat, his markings gathered in clusters. The wildcat can change and become a leopard, and the leopard can change and become a tiger.

好書而不要諸仲尼，書肆也。好說而不要諸仲尼，說鈴也。君子言也無擇，聽也無淫。擇則亂，淫則闢。述正道而稍邪哆者有矣，未有述邪哆而稍正也。

One who loves books but does not take Confucius as his refuge is only a bookshop; one who loves debate but does not take Confucius as his refuge is only a ringing bell. The gentleman's speech has no mixture and his listening has no excess. With mixture there is disorder, with excess there is perversity. There are those who speak of the right way and slide slightly into perversity, but I have never seen one who speaks of perversity and turns slightly back toward the right way.

孔子之道，其較且易也。或曰：「童而習之，白紛如也，何其較且易？」曰：「謂其不姦姦、不詐詐也。如姦姦而詐詐，雖有耳目，焉得而正諸？」

The Way of Confucius is clear and easy. Someone said: "One studies from childhood and, when the hair turns white, is still in a tangle; how is it clear and easy?" Yang Xiong said: "It means that it does not treat treachery as treachery or deceit as deceit. If one treated treachery as treachery and deceit as deceit, then even with ears and eyes, how could one set it straight?"

多聞則守之以約，多見則守之以卓。寡聞則無約也，寡見則無卓也。

When you hear much, guard it with brevity; when you see much, guard it with lofty clarity. If you hear little, there is no brevity to speak of; if you see little, there is no lofty clarity to speak of.

綠衣三百，色如之何矣？紵絮三千，寒如之何矣？

Three hundred green garments, what of their color? Three thousand catties of ramie floss, what of the cold?

君子之道有四易：簡而易，用也；要而易，守也；炳而易，見也；法而易，言也。

The gentleman's Way has four kinds of ease: simplicity makes it easy, because it is close to use; being concise makes it easy, because it is convenient to keep; being bright makes it easy, because it can be seen; having rules makes it easy, because it can be clearly stated.

震風陵雨，然後知夏屋之為帡幪也；虐政虐世，然後知聖人之為郛郭也。

Only after a violent storm do you know that a great house is a covering; only after a tyrannical and chaotic age do you know that the sage is a city wall.

古者楊、墨塞路，孟子辭而闢之，廓如也。後之塞路者有矣，竊自比於孟子。

In the past Yang Zhu and Mo Di blocked the roads, and Mencius wrote to clear them, and the roads were opened wide. Since then there have still been those who block the roads, and I privately compare myself to Mencius.

或曰：「人各是其所是而非其所非，將誰使正之？」曰：「萬物紛錯則懸諸天，眾言淆亂則折諸聖。」或曰：「惡覩乎聖而折諸？」曰：「在則人，亡則書，其統一也。」

Someone said: "Everyone takes what he thinks right as right and what he thinks wrong as wrong; whom shall we have correct them?" Yang Xiong said: "When the ten thousand things are in confusion, they are corrected by hanging them in the sky; when the various doctrines are in confusion, they are reconciled by the sage." Someone said: "Where can one see the sage to reconcile them?" Yang Xiong said: "When the sage is present, rely on the person; when the sage is absent, rely on his books; this has always been the same."