The Analects – Chapter 17.8

The Master said, “You, Zhong You (Zilu), have you heard of the ‘six virtues’ and the ‘six vices resulting from a lack of learning’?”

Zilu replied, “No, I have not.”

The Master said, “Sit down! Let me tell you. To love Benevolence without loving learning leads to the vice of foolishness; to love Wisdom without loving learning leads to the vice of dissipation (lacking a solid foundation); to love Trustworthiness without loving learning leads to the vice of being easily exploited and harmed; to love Straightforwardness without loving learning leads to the vice of harshness and tactlessness; to love Courage without loving learning leads to the vice of causing chaos and rebellion; to love Resoluteness without loving learning leads to the vice of recklessness and arrogance.”

Note

This passage from the Analects by Confucius profoundly reveals the dialectical relationship between “Virtue” and “Learning” in Confucian thought. Confucius points out that Benevolence, Wisdom, Trustworthiness, Straightforwardness, Courage, and Resoluteness are all excellent virtues in themselves. However, if they are divorced from “learning” (studying classics, discerning right from wrong, mastering the Doctrine of the Mean, etc.), they will go to extremes and degenerate into six vices.

This thought breaks the simplistic notion that “having virtue means being perfect,” emphasizing the decisive role of later learning and rational cognition in moral cultivation. Virtue without the support of learning is merely blind instinct or biased character; it not only fails to make one a noble person but can also bring disaster.

Through this, Confucius taught Zilu that true morality must be built upon profound knowledge and rational judgment. Only by “loving learning” can one “understand reason,” thereby preventing virtues from deteriorating.

Further Reading

The Master said, “I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there.”

— The Analects, Chapter 7.20

Confucius said, “Those who are born with knowledge are the highest; those who learn to know are the next; those who learn when faced with difficulties are the next; those who face difficulties without learning, the common people are of the lowest sort.”

— The Analects, Chapter 16.9

These chapters collectively emphasize the Confucian extreme emphasis on “later learning.” Whether pointing out that virtues without the support of learning will degenerate into vices (the six words and six vices), or emphasizing that humans are not born omniscient and must acquire wisdom through later learning (“learn to know,” “earnest in seeking”), their core logic is highly consistent: Learning is the only way to perfect one’s character and prevent morality from drifting into extremism. Confucius rejected absolute innate fatalism, believing that even innate virtues or aptitudes must be polished and elevated through “learning” to truly become the noble virtue of a gentleman who can save the world.

子曰：「由也，女聞六言六蔽矣乎？」對曰：「未也。」「居！吾語女。好仁不好學，其蔽也愚；好知不好學，其蔽也蕩；好信不好學，其蔽也賊；好直不好學，其蔽也絞；好勇不好學，其蔽也亂；好剛不好學，其蔽也狂。」