“难易”还是“恭敬”:《论语》四章“难”究义

Difficult or Respectful: the Meaning of “Nan”(难) in the Four Chapters of The Analects of Confucius

《论语》“子夏问孝”等四章中的“难”,传统释读多作“困难”解。然就文意、文例与文献义来看,“难”当通“戁”,作“谨慎、恭敬”解。四章旨在强调“为孝”“为仁”应持有的态度,而非难易程度。

In the four chapters such as “Zi Xia Asking Filial Piety”(子夏问孝) of “The Analects of Confucius”(论语),the word “nan”(难) has been interpreted as “difficult”in the traditional interpretations.Actually,it is the borrowed-graph of “nan”(戁),which should be understood as “cautious”and “respectful” from the meaning of literary,sentence structure,and literature meaning.The four chapters aim to emphasize the attitude of “filial piety” and “benevolence”,but not to the degree of difficulty.