Analects 17.10
The Analects (論語), BOOK XVII. YANG HO 陽貨第十七
子謂伯魚曰、女爲周南召南矣乎、人而不爲周南召南、其猶正牆面而立也與。
The Master said to Po-yu, "Do you give yourself to the Chau-nan and the Shao-nan. The man who has not studied the Chau-nan and the Shao-nan, is like one who stands with his face right against a wall. Is he not so?"
James Legge (1861), Confucian Analects, The Chinese Classics vol. 1 (1861; 2nd ed. 1893) — public domain.
Character glossary
- 子zison, child; seed, egg; fruit; small thin
- 謂wèito call, to say, to tell; name, title; m
- 伯bóolder brother; father's elder brother; s
- 魚yúfish
- 曰yuēto speak; to say
- 女nǚwoman, girl; female
- 爲wèido, handle, govern, act; be
- 周zhōuZhou dynasty; circumference
- 南nánsouth; southern; southward
- 召zhàoimperial decree; to summon, to call, to
- 矣yǐparticle of completed action
- 乎hūinterrogative or exclamatory final parti
- 人rénman, person; people
- 而érand, and then, and yet; but
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 其qíhis, her, its, their; that
- 猶yóusimilar to, just like, as
- 正zhèngstraight, right, proper, correct, just,
- 牆qiángwall
- 面miànface; surface, side; plane, dimension
- 立lìto stand; to establish, to set up
- 也yěalso, too
- 與yǔand; with; to; for; to give, to grant
Passages with shared wording
- Analects 16.13
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
- Analects 6.11
- Analects 15.13
- Analects 20.3
- Analects 11.22
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.