Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
君子役物，小人役於物
The exemplary person puts things to use; the petty person is put to use by things.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
50 Han characters · 39 distinct forms · 11 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
- Establish the frame. Read the surrounding chapter. Who speaks, what is being discussed, and which earlier words supply the context?
- Test one unit.
志意脩則驕富貴，
Mark a possible predicate and its participants. Record what you have supplied rather than found explicitly in the text. - Reconstruct the argument. Connect the units in your own words. Where does a description, question, contrast, or consequence depend on your interpretation?
Investigate 8 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 而 × 3 物 × 3 之 × 3 則 × 2 義 × 2 輕 × 2. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · 1 contextual editorial excerpt also available. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
Make this passage yours.
Use the reading guide above, build your interpretation, then test what you can recover. Your notes and schedule stay on this device.
1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
Select a source unit, then hide the passage and reconstruct it. This checks textual recall, not understanding.
3 · Explain, then revisit
What changes between the two clauses?
Compare the editorial answer
Who controls whom: the person directs things in the first, but is directed by them in the second.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 君子役物，小人役於物
.
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Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading巧言令色，鮮矣仁論語 · Locate a relation夫子至於是邦也論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading父在，觀其志；父沒，觀其行論語 · Locate a relation信近於義Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 荀子 · Xunzi
- Attribution
- Traditionally associated with Xun Kuang; the received collection contains multiple textual layers.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR3a0002 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR3a0002_002.txt, lines 166–176. XUN 2:5.1, ed. Beida p. 19; Knoblock 1:154
- Version
e18a27621ef434940a368defd29e00eee205dfd2- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: 9e5c5037f38eb62601a3f60b457a111d74a84f099d8b2adddb2a740abee727fb. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.