Identify a comparison and its standard
Comparisons can use words meaning “be like”, constructions with a standard after 於, or negative comparisons such as 不如. The compared property may be understood rather than repeated.
如 · 若 · 於
A reading procedure
- Find the two things compared.
- Recover the relevant property from context.
- Distinguish similarity from a ranking or a counterfactual condition.
如 and 若 also occur in conditional contexts.
Compare
Search finds spelling; it does not automatically label every occurrence with this construction.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Evidence and further study
Linked passages below provide the primary-text evidence for these editorial examples. The readings are not borrowed from, or endorsed by, the further-study references.
Kanseki Repository · pinned primary text witnesses
Textual evidence. Individual examples link to exact source files and lines.
Edwin G. Pulleyblank · Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar
Further study: word order, predication, nominalization, negation and complex sentences. Book content is not reproduced.
Robert Eno · Introduction to Literary Chinese, Part I
Further study: an academic primer with annotated readings and exercises. Not imported.
Introduction to Classical Chinese · Schonebaum and contributors
Further study: function words and reading lessons. CC BY-NC-SA material is not imported into this dataset.
Thesaurus Linguae Sericae
Further research: contextual historical senses and syntactic analysis. No TLS annotation import in this release.
15 examples in context
未若貧而樂道，富而好禮者也
It is not as good as being poor yet delighting in the way, or rich yet loving ritual.
未若 introduces a comparison with the previous proposal. 者 closes the paired description as something that can be compared. This witness includes 道 after 樂; preserve that textual choice rather than silently substituting another edition.
Check your reading · What does 未若 compare?
The earlier condition with the richer ethical description that follows.
上善若水
The highest goodness is like water.
若 links the evaluated quality to a comparison standard 水. The following clauses explain the likeness through benefiting, not contending, and occupying low places. The comparison is developed by the text rather than exhausted by one shared property.
Check your reading · Is 若 conditional here?
No. It introduces a likeness to water.
青、取之於藍而青於藍
Blue dye is taken from indigo, yet is bluer than indigo.
The first 於 introduces the source; the second gives a comparison standard. The repeated graph therefore does different work within one sentence. The craft example supports a claim about learning and transformation, not a botanical definition of 青.
Check your reading · Do the two instances of 於 express the same relation?
No: source in 取之於藍, comparison in 青於藍.
非其身重於千鈞也，勢不便也
It is not that his body is heavier than a thousand jun; the configuration is unfavorable.
The passage describes a strongman who can lift a huge weight yet cannot lift himself. 非 rejects a proposed explanation, and the second 也 clause substitutes another. 勢 names the arrangement or position in this example, not simply personal strength.
Check your reading · Which explanation is rejected and which is proposed?
Body weight is rejected; an unfavorable configuration is proposed.
奇正相生，如循環之無端，孰能窮之？
The extraordinary and the regular generate one another, like a circle without an endpoint; who could exhaust them?
相 makes the generation reciprocal; the question expects no finite completion. 之 resumes the transformations just described. 奇 and 正 are contrasting tactical categories here, so modern everyday glosses such as strange and correct obscure the argument.
Check your reading · What does 相 add to 生?
Reciprocity: each mode gives rise to the other.
其疾如風，其徐如林；侵掠如火，不動如山
Swift as wind, measured as a forest; raiding like fire, unmoving like a mountain.
The parallel comparisons switch the relevant property in each image. 其 resumes the military body or action in context. The images are situational alternatives rather than instructions to display speed and immobility simultaneously.
Check your reading · Why must the property of comparison be recovered separately each time?
Each image illustrates a different mode of action rather than one shared physical property.
視卒如嬰兒，故可與之赴深谿
Regard the troops as infants, and one can go with them into deep ravines.
之 refers to the troops and is governed by 與, not by 赴. The parental comparison is followed by a warning about affection without command. It is an argument about leadership and loyalty, not a claim that the soldiers literally lack adult capacities.
Check your reading · Which word governs the pronoun 之?
與: going with the troops.
如切如磋，如琢如磨
As if cut and filed, as if carved and polished.
Four craft actions stand in parallel comparisons describing the admired figure. The verse does not itself name a teaching method; that application can be studied through later quotations, including the Analects. Keeping the source image and its reuse distinct makes the connection more informative.
Check your reading · What stays constant while the craft verbs change?
The repeated comparative 如 and the characterization of the admired figure.
一日不見，如三月兮
One day without seeing that person feels like three months.
The object of 見 is left implicit and supplied from the song's situation. 如 compares experienced duration rather than making a calendar calculation. 兮 contributes to the verse's cadence; translating it as a separate content word is usually unhelpful here.
Check your reading · What kind of comparison is made?
The felt duration of absence, not a factual equality of time spans.
戰戰兢兢，如臨深淵，如履薄冰
Trembling with care, as if facing a deep abyss, as if stepping on thin ice.
The repeated 如 marks similes, so the verse need not describe an actual precipice or frozen surface. The two actions offer distinct images of precariousness. Compare later quotation in Analects 8 while preserving the different speaker and situation.
Check your reading · Does the wording establish that the speaker is literally walking on ice?
No. 如 explicitly makes the scene a comparison.
天時不如地利，地利不如人和
Favorable timing does not equal favorable terrain; favorable terrain does not equal human accord.
The two 不如 clauses form a ranking by repeating the middle term 地利. The subsequent siege example is offered to support it. 人和 here belongs to an argument about collective support, not simply a pleasant mood inside one individual.
Check your reading · How does the repetition of 地利 structure the claim?
It makes terrain the middle level in a three-part comparison.
人性之善也，猶水之就下也
The goodness of human nature is like water's tendency to move downward.
The two 之 constructions package relations for comparison. 猶 makes the water image an analogy, whose next lines must be read before judging its force. It does not itself settle what 性 includes or resolve Xunzi's differently framed account of cultivation.
Check your reading · What does 猶 tell us about the relation between the two clauses?
One is offered as an analogy for the other, not as a literal identity.
盡信《書》，則不如無《書》
To trust the Documents in every detail would be worse than having no Documents.
《書》 identifies the textual collection being evaluated, not every written book without distinction. The next sentence names Wu cheng and limits what is accepted from it. The provocative comparison makes a case for judgment within reading, rather than a blanket rejection of textual learning.
Check your reading · What narrows the target of the criticism?
The explicit reference to the Documents and then to its Wu cheng section.
天下莫柔弱於水，而攻堅強者莫之能勝
Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water, yet in working against the hard and strong, nothing can surpass it.
於 introduces the comparison standard in the first clause. In 莫之能勝, 之 precedes the modal and verb in a negative environment and refers to water. The apparent weakness and effective action form the paradox; softness should not be reduced to simple inability to act.
Check your reading · What is the referent and position of 之?
Water, placed before 能勝 in the negative construction.
相濡以沫，不如相忘於江湖
Moistening one another with foam is less good than forgetting one another in rivers and lakes.
相 makes both actions reciprocal. 以沫 names the means of emergency aid, while 於江湖 gives the setting of the contrasting condition. The comparison is made from the story of fish on dry land; it should not be detached into a simple prohibition on helping others.
Check your reading · Why does the stranded-fish setting matter?
It distinguishes emergency dependence from the more sustaining condition imagined in the second clause.