Analects · Chapter
XLI explained
Tsze-lû spends the night at Shih-mǎn, where the gatekeeper questions him about his master, Confucius, and remarks on Confucius's awareness of the impracticality of the times yet his persistence in trying to reform them.
What happens
Tsze-lû spends the night at Shih-mǎn, where the gatekeeper questions him about his master, Confucius, and remarks on Confucius's awareness of the impracticality of the times yet his persistence in trying to reform them.
Themes in this chapter
Virtuous Governance
Confucius's persistence in attempting to govern rightly despite the impracticality of the times.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Whom do you come from?”
From whom have you come?
The gatekeeper asks Tsze-lû about his origin.
“It is he—is it not?—who knows the impracticable nature of the times and yet will be doing in them.”
Is he not the one who knows the times are hopeless but still tries to act?
The gatekeeper characterizes Confucius as a man who persists despite knowing the futility.