7.26
The Master said, “A Divine Sage I cannot hope ever to meet; the most I can hope for is to meet a true gentleman.”
The Master said,”A faultless man I cannot hope ever to meet; the most I can hope for is to meet a man of fixed principles. Yet where all around I see Nothing pretending to be Something, Emptiness pretending to be Fullness, Penury pretending to be Affluence, even a man of fixed principles will be none too easy to find.”
子曰：「聖人，吾不得而見之矣；得見君子者，斯可矣。」子曰：「善人，吾不得而見之矣；得見有恆者，斯可矣。亡而為有，虛而為盈，約而為泰，難乎有恆矣。」
Notes
Confucianism never engages in empty talk about “perfection,” but instead classifies personal cultivation into three progressive levels: steadfast person > noble person > sage.
- The steadfast person is the foundation, emphasizing perseverance and continuous improvement (e.g., “daily self-reflection”).
- The noble person is the core goal, requiring active virtue cultivation and practice of righteousness — attainable through earnest effort.
- The sage represents the highest human attainment — an ultimate ideal, like the Duke of Zhou.
This tiered approach from the Analects prevents abandoning pursuit due to “overly lofty ideals,” embodying Confucian practical wisdom of gradual progression.
During the Spring and Autumn period‘s “collapse of rites,” society was rife with hypocrisy. The greatest enemy of moral cultivation is precisely this pretense.
“The gentleman is open and poised; the petty person is anxious and fretful.”(Analects 7.37)
Petty people, hollow at heart, deliberately put on a false front and are plagued by gains and losses. In contrast, people of perseverance and gentlemen, upholding moral principles, maintain an open and unperturbed mind and do not need to resort to superficial ostentation to prove themselves.
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