朱熹's commentary on Analects 5.13

[somethingfunny]

Given the lively discussion from the last post I made and the fact that I still don't have much experience with Confucius or Zhu Xi's commentary, I thought I'd post another one and see what people think:

 

子貢曰：「夫子之文章，可得而聞也；夫子之言性與天道，不可得而聞也。」

文章，德之見乎外者，威儀文辭皆是也。性者，人所受之天理；天道者，天理自然之本體，其實一理也。言夫子之文章，日見乎外，固學者所共聞；至於性與天道，則夫子罕言之，而學者有不得聞者。蓋聖門教不躐等，子貢至是始得聞之，而歎其美也。程子曰：「此子貢聞夫子之至論而歎美之言也。」

 

The punctuation removes a lot of the mystery from this passage, but there are still a couple of interesting points:

 

1. 夫子之言性與天道 - This is just a straightforward "Confucius' words on 性 and 天道..." I think.
2. In the line "性者，人所受之天理", I believe we are talking about two technical neo-Confucian concepts: 性 and 天理, and that the former is the reception of the latter (or: "(Human) nature, this is the heavenly principle which people receive").  I assume that the place where people receive this is from 天 itself.
3. 天道者，天理自然之本體，其實一理也 - the first part of this line is too technical (I know how to read it, but I don't know what any of the terms are actually about).  The 其 however is a little strange - I assume it refers back to 天道 and is stating that "in reality, 天道 is one principle"??
4. 固學者所共聞 - I don't know how to read this adverb - verb - nominalisation combo at the start of this sentence.