Analects 4.13
The Analects (論語), BOOK IV. LE JIN 里仁第四
子曰、能以禮讓爲國乎、何有、不能以禮讓爲國、如禮何。
The Master said, "If a prince is able to govern his kingdom with the complaisance proper to the rules of propriety, what difficulty will he have? If he cannot govern it with that complaisance, what has he to do with the rules of propriety?"
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
- 曰yuēto speak; to say
- 能néngcan, may; capable, full of energy
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 禮lǐcourtesy, manners, social customs
- 讓ràngto allow, to permit, to yield
- 爲wèido, handle, govern, act; be
- 國guócountry, nation, state; national
- 乎hūinterrogative or exclamatory final parti
- 何héwhat, why, where, which, how
- 有yǒuto have, to own, to possess; to exist
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 如rúas, as if, like, such as, supposing
Passages with shared wording
- Analects 3.3
- Analects 11.25
- Zhuangzi Self-Conceit
- Zhuangzi Kêng Sang Ch’u
- Zhuangzi On Declining Power
- Zhuangzi On Letting Alone
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.