Yan Hui sighed deeply and said, “The more I look up to the Master’s Way, the higher it appears; the more I delve into it, the firmer it becomes. Just when I think I see it ahead of me, suddenly it seems to be behind. My teacher guides people skillfully and step by step: he broadens me with culture and disciplines me with ritual. I cannot bring myself to stop – even after exhausting all my abilities, I glimpse his towering presence before me. Yet even though I long to follow him, I find no path to reach him.”
Note
This passage from the Analects is Yan Hui’s most heartfelt tribute to Confucius’s character and pedagogy, and it encapsulates the core Confucian path of self-cultivation. The phrases “the higher it appears” and “the firmer it becomes” convey the inexhaustible depth and moral solidity of the Master’s Way – transcendent yet grounded, accessible yet never fully graspable. “Guiding step by step” reflects Confucius’s adaptive, gradual teaching method. The dual approach of “broadening through culture” and “disciplining through ritual” represents the two pillars of Confucian education: intellectual enrichment and ethical restraint. Culture expands the mind; ritual shapes conduct. Together, they cultivate the junzi (noble person or gentleman). Yan Hui’s “inability to stop” reveals genuine inner drive for the Way, while his lament – “I long to follow, yet find no path” – expresses not despair but awe: the sage’s attainment is so lofty that even total effort feels insufficient. This tension between aspiration and limitation embodies the Confucian ideal of lifelong moral striving.
Further Reading
Duke Ai asked, “Which of your disciples loved learning most?” Confucius replied, “There was Yan Hui – he loved learning, never transferred anger, and never repeated a fault. Alas, he died young! Now there is no one; I have heard of no one else who truly loved learning.” Analects 6.3 (Yong Ye)
Confirms Yan Hui’s exceptional dedication to learning and moral refinement – contextualizes his profound admiration in Chapter 9.11.
The Master said, “At fifteen I set my heart on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no doubts; at fifty I understood Heaven’s Mandate; at sixty my ear was attuned; at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without overstepping boundaries.” Analects 2.4 (Wei Zheng)
Illustrates the lifelong, progressive nature of Confucian self-cultivation – mirroring Yan Hui’s sense that the path is endless and the goal ever-distant yet compelling.
顏淵喟然歎曰：「仰之彌高，鑽之彌堅；瞻之在前，忽焉在後。夫子循循然善誘人，博我以文，約我以禮。欲罷不能，既竭吾才，如有所立卓爾。雖欲從之，末由也已。」
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