Follow a condition and its consequence
則 often introduces a consequence, inference, or contrasting case. An “if” relation may be supplied by the preceding clause even when there is no separate word meaning “if”.
則
A reading procedure
- Find the clause that sets up the situation.
- Read the following clause as its consequence or next case.
- Check whether the passage instead contrasts two topics.
則 does not guarantee a real-world causal claim; it can organize an argument.
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
行有餘力，則以學文
If conduct leaves strength to spare, then use it to study cultural learning.
The first clause sets a condition; 則 opens the following step. An object for 以 is understood from the available strength. The English “it” is supplied by interpretation and is not a separate pronoun written here.
Check your reading · Which word introduces the consequent step?
則.
過則勿憚改
When at fault, do not be afraid to change.
過 supplies the circumstance and 則 the next response. 勿 makes a directive about 憚改. It does not report that fear is absent; it tells the addressee not to let fear prevent correction.
Check your reading · Is 勿 reporting a fact or giving a directive?
Giving a negative directive.
學而不思則罔，思而不學則殆
Learning without reflection leads to bewilderment; reflection without learning leads to peril.
Each half offers a condition followed by a result introduced by 則. The repeated frame makes the missing counterpart visible. Translations of 罔 and 殆 vary; the structural contrast is firmer than any one English gloss.
Check your reading · Which two activities exchange positions?
學 and 思.
慎言其餘，則寡尤
Speak cautiously about what remains, and there will be fewer grounds for blame.
其餘 refers to what remains after doubtful material has been set aside. 則 introduces the result of that caution. This passage makes uncertainty itself a topic of study rather than something the reader should silently erase.
Check your reading · What does 其餘 refer back to?
The material remaining after doubtful points are withheld.
舉直錯諸枉，則民服
Raise the upright over the crooked, and the people will submit.
舉 and 錯 describe placing or raising people. 諸 is conventionally analysed here as incorporating a relation to the following group. The reciprocal next clause reverses 直 and 枉, which helps test the interpretation.
Check your reading · What changes in the following parallel case?
The upright and crooked groups exchange positions.
王如知此，則無望民之多於鄰國也
If the king understands this, he should not expect his people to outnumber those of neighboring states.
如 introduces a condition, 則 its consequence. Within the expected situation, 多於 sets a comparison. The line combines several structures; a simple search for 於 alone cannot identify the complete argument.
Check your reading · What is compared by 多於?
The size of the king’s population with that of neighboring states.
曲則全，枉則直
Bent, then preserved; crooked, then straight.
The paired clauses place an initial state before 則 and a resulting state after it. The paradox is part of the teaching; the construction itself does not prove a physical law that bending always preserves something.
Check your reading · What does 則 separate in each clause?
The initial condition and the stated result.
欲而不得，則不能無求；求而無度量分界，則不能不爭
Desiring but not obtaining, people cannot avoid seeking; seeking without measures and boundaries, they cannot avoid contending.
Two clauses introduced by 則 form a chain in an explanation of ritual. 不能無求 and 不能不爭 contain nested negatives: neither means that seeking or contention is absent. The chain states the chapter's argument; it should not be presented as an experimentally established law of all behavior.
Check your reading · Does 不能不爭 deny contention?
No. It presents contention as unavoidable under the stated condition.
虛則知實之情，靜則知動者正
Being receptive makes the actual situation knowable; being still makes the correctness of activity knowable.
The two 則 clauses coordinate the ruler's stance with an epistemic result. 虛 and 靜 here belong to a discussion of administration and observing others. Their presence does not by itself prove that every text using these words recommends the same practice or shares a single doctrine.
Check your reading · What relation do the repeated 則 clauses organize?
A proposed condition of the ruler and its claimed consequence for knowing.
君無術則弊於上，臣無法則亂於下
Without administrative technique the ruler is compromised above; without standards the ministers produce disorder below.
The paired 則 clauses assign different deficiencies to ruler and ministers. The preceding definitions distinguish 術 from 法, so their combination should not be collapsed into one English word such as law. 於上 and 於下 locate the failures within the hierarchy.
Check your reading · Why retain separate labels for 術 and 法?
The argument assigns them different administrative roles and says both are needed.
世異則事異
When the age differs, its affairs differ.
世異 provides the condition for the following claim. The surrounding story contrasts outcomes of conduct in different times; this short formula is offered as its inference. It does not independently prove the historical story or license every proposed policy as suitable to the present.
Check your reading · What supplies the condition even without an explicit word meaning if?
The first clause 世異.
卒未親附而罰之，則不服，不服則難用也
If troops are punished before they feel attachment, they do not submit; without submission they are difficult to employ.
之 resumes 卒 as the object of punishment. Two 則 relations connect timing, response, and usability. The following clause also warns against failing to enforce punishment after attachment; isolating this sentence would hide that paired argument.
Check your reading · Which missing context changes how this advice should be summarized?
The next warning about attachment without effective enforcement.
舉一隅不以三隅反，則不復也
If shown one corner someone does not return with the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.
The corners form an image of the learner completing an inference. Subjects and objects are omitted, so the teacher and learner must be recovered from the preceding account of prompting. The passage does not identify a literal geometry lesson as its only setting.
Check your reading · What must the learner contribute beyond the teacher's prompt?
An inference extending the one corner to the other three.
盡其心者，知其性也。知其性，則知天矣。
Those who fully realize their heart-mind know their nature; knowing their nature, they know Heaven.
Repeated 其 keeps heart-mind and nature attached to the person under discussion. 者 first creates a subject-expression, then 則 marks the next inferential step. The sequence is the text's proposed path of understanding and should not be presented as a settled psychological mechanism.
Check your reading · What step does 則 introduce?
The claimed movement from knowing one's nature to knowing Heaven.
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.