荀子Hsun-Tzu Translated by Burton Watson
劝学篇第一 ENCOURAGING, LEARNING (SECTION 1)
The gentleman says: Learning should never cease. Blue comes
from the indigo plant but is bluer than the plant itself. Ice is
made of water but is colder than water ever is…. If the gentleman
studies widely and each day examines himself, his wisdom will
become clear and his conduct be without fault.
If you do not climb a high mountain, you will not comprehend the
highness of the heavens; if you do not look down into a deep
valley, you will not know the depth of the earth; and if you do not
hear the words handed down from the ancient kings, you will not
understand the greatness of learning. Children born among the Han
or Yüeh people of the south and among the Mo barbarians of the
north cry with the same voice at birth, but as they grow older they
follow different customs. Education causes them to differ. The
Oh, you gentlemen,
Do not be constantly at ease and rest!
Quietly respectful in your posts,
Love those who are correct and upright
And the gods will hearken to you
And aid you with great blessing.1
There is no greater godliness2 than to transform yourself with the
Way, no greater blessing than to escape misfortune.
I once tried spending the whole day in thought, but I found
it of less value than a moment of study.3 I once tried standing on
tiptoe and gazing into the distance, but I found I could see much
farther by climbing to a high place. If you climb to a high place
and wave to someone, it is not as though your arm were any longer
than usual, and yet people can see. you from much farther away. If
you shout down the wind, it is not as though your voice were any
stronger than usual, and yet people can hear you much more clearly.
Those who make use of carriages or horses may not be any faster
walkers than anyone else, and yet they are able to travel a
thousand li. Those who make use of boats may not know how to swim,
and yet they manage to get across rivers. The gentleman is by birth
no different from any other man; it is just that he is good at
making use of things.
In the south there is a bird called the meng dove. It makes
a nest out of feathers woven together with hair and suspends it
from the tips of the reeds. But when the wind comes, the reeds
break, the eggs are smashed, and the baby birds killed. It is not
that the nest itself is faulty; the fault is in the thing it is
attached to. In the west there is a tree called the yeh-kan. Its
trunk is no more than four inches tall and it grows on top of the
high mountains, from whence it looks down into valleys a hundred
fathoms deep. It is not a long trunk which afford the tree such a
view, but simply the place where it stands. If pigweed grows up in
the midst of hemp, it will stand up straight without propping. If
white sand is mixed with mud, it too will turn black.4 The root of
a certain orchid is the source of the perfume called chih; but if
the root were to be soaked in urine, then no gentleman would go
near it and no commoner would consent to wear it. It is not that
the root itself is of an unpleasant quality; it is the fault of the
thing it has been soaked in. Therefore a gentleman will take care
in selecting the community he intends to live in, and will choose
men of breeding for his companions. In this way he wards off evil
and meanness, and draws close to fairness and right.
Every phenomenon that appears must have a cause. The glory or shame
that come to a man are no more than the image of his virtue. Meat
when it rots breeds worms; fish that is old and dry brings forth
maggots. When a man is careless and lazy and forgets himself, that
is when disaster occurs. The strong naturally bear up under weight;
the weak naturally end up bound.5 Evil and corruption in oneself
invite the anger of others. If you lay sticks of identical shape on
a fire, the flames will seek out the driest ones; if you level the
ground to an equal smoothness, water will still seek out the
dampest spot. Trees of the same species grow together; birds and
beasts gather in herds; for all things follow after their own kind.
Where a target is hung up, arrows will find their way to it; where
the forest trees grow thickest, the axes will enter. When a tree is
tall and shady, birds will flock to roost in it; when vinegar turns
sour, gnats will collect around it. So there are words that invite
disaster and actions that call down shame. A gentleman must be
careful where he takes his stand.
Pile up earth to make a mountain and wind and rain will rise up
from it. Pile up water to make a deep pool and dragons will appear.
Pile up good deeds to create virtue and godlike understanding will
come of itself; there the mind of the sage will find completion.
But unless you pile up little steps, you can never journey a
thousand li; unless you pile up tiny streams, you can never make a
river or a sea. The finest thoroughbred cannot travel ten paces in
one leap, but the sorriest nag can go a ten days’ journey.
Achievement consists of never giving up. If you start carving and
then give up, you cannot even cut through a piece of rotten wood;
but if you persist without stopping, you can carve and inlay metal
or stone. Earthworms have no sharp claws or teeth, no strong
muscles or bones, and yet above ground they feast on the mud, and
below they drink at the yellow springs. This is because they keep
their minds on one thing. Crabs have six legs and two pincers, but
unless they can find an empty hole dug by a snake or a water
serpent, they have no place to lodge. This is because they allow
their minds to go off in all directions. Thus if there is no dark
and dogged will, there will be no shining accomplishment; if there
is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant
achievement. He who tries to travel two roads at once will arrive
nowhere; he who serves two masters will please neither. The
wingless dragon has no limbs and yet it can soar; the flying
squirrel has many talents but finds itself hard pressed. The
Ringdove in the mulberry,
Its children are seven.
The good man, the gentleman,
His forms are one.
His forms are one,
His heart is as though bound.6
Thus does the gentleman bind himself to oneness.
In ancient times, when Hu Pa played the zither, the fish in the
streams came forth to listen; when Po Ya played the lute, the six
horses of the emperor’s carriage looked up from their feed trough.
No sound is too faint to be heard, no action too well concealed to
be known. When there are precious stones under the mountain, the
grass and trees have a special sheen; where pearls grow in a pool,
the banks are never parched. Do good and see if it does not pile
up. If it does, how can it fail to be heard of?
1 "Lesser Odes," Hsiao-ming, Mao text no. 207. Here and elsewhere
in quotations from the Odes and Documents I have for the most pan
followed the interpretations of Karlgren.
2 Hsun Tzu repeats the word shen (gods) from the ode, but gives it
a humanistic interpretation, making it a moral quality of the good
man; I have therefore translated it as “godliness.”
3 A paraphrase of Confucius’ remark in Analects XV, 30.
4 This sentence has been restored from quotations of Hsun Tzu
presented in other texts.
5 Following the interpretation of Liu Shih-p’ei.
6 “Airs of Ts’ao” Shih-chiu, Mao text no. 152. The last line I have
interpreted differently from Karlgren in order to make it fit Hsun
Where does learning begin and where does it end? I say that as to
program, learning begins with the recitation of the Classics and
ends with the reading of the ritual texts; and as to objective, it
begins learning to be a man of breeding, and ends with learning to
be a sage.7 If you truly pile up effort over a long period of time,
you will enter into the highest realm. Learning continues until
death and only then does it cease. Therefore we may speak of an end
to the program of learning, but the objective of learning must
never for an instant be given up. To pursue it is to be a man, to
give it up is to become a beast. The Book of Documents is
the record of government affairs, the Odes the repository of
correct sounds, and the rituals are the great basis of law and the
foundation of precedents. Therefore learning reaches its completion
with the rituals, for they may be said to represent the highest
point of the Way and its power. The reverence and order of the
rituals, the fitness and harmony of music, the breadth of the
Odes and Documents, the subtlety of the Spring and
Autumn Annals—these encompass all that is between heaven and
The learning of the gentleman enters his ear, clings to his mind,
spreads through his four limbs, and manifests itself in his
actions. His smallest word, his slightest movement can serve as a
model. The learning of the petty man enters his ear and comes out
his mouth. With only four inches between ear and mouth, how can he
have possession of it long enough to ennoble a seven-foot body? In
old times men studied for their own sake; nowadays men study with
an eye to others.8 The gentleman uses learning to ennoble himself;
the petty man uses learning as a bride to win attention from
others. To volunteer information when you have not been asked is
called officiousness; to answer two questions when you have been
asked only one is garrulity. Both officiousness and garrulity are
to be condemned. The gentleman should be like an echo.
In learning, nothing is more profitable than to associate with
those who are learned. Ritual and music present us with models but
no explanations; the Odes and Document deal with
ancient matters and are not always pertinent; the Spring and
Autumn Annals is terse and cannot be quickly understood. But if
you make use of the erudition of others and the explanations of
gentlemen, then you will become honored and may make your way
anywhere in the world. Therefore I say that in learning nothing is
more profitable than to associate with those who are learned, and
of the roads to learning, none is quicker than to love such men.
Second only to this is to honor ritual. If you are first of all
unable to love such men and secondly are incapable of honoring
ritual, then you will only be learning a mass of jumbled facts,
blindly following the Odes and Documents and nothing
more. In such a case you may study to the end of your days and you
will never be anything but a vulgar pedant.
7 Hsun Tzu customarily distinguishes three grades in the moral
hierarchy of men: shih, chun-tzu, and sheng-jen, which I have
translated as “man of breeding,” “gentleman,” and “sage”
respectively, though at times he uses the first two terms more or
8 This sentence is quoted from Analects XIV, 25, where it is
attributed to Confucius.