Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
A route through this passage
74 Han characters · 45 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.
短綆不可以汲深井之泉，
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.
短綆不可以汲深井之泉，Keep different negatives apart ↗短綆不可以汲深井之泉，Identify means, basis, and purpose ↗知不幾者不可與及聖人之言。Name the one, thing, or situation ↗固非庸人之所知也。Keep different negatives apart ↗固非庸人之所知也。Focus on what an action concerns ↗Watch recurrence: 之 × 9 可 × 7 也 × 6 而 × 5 不 × 3 故 × 2. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · Contextual interpretation awaits editorial review. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
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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
Without the source in front of you, explain the passage’s main point and one choice you made in reading it. Then reopen the text and check the evidence.
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Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
莊子 · 至樂第十八不可以汲善之，曰：『褚小者不可以懷大，綆短者不可以汲深。』夫若是者，以為命有所成，而形有所適也，
韓非子 · 外儲說左上第三十二聖人之言墨子之說，傳先王之道，論聖人之言以宣告人。若辯其辭，則恐人懷其文忘其直，以文害用也。此與楚人鬻珠，秦伯嫁女同類，故其
論語 · 季氏篇第十六聖人之言曰：「君子有三畏：畏天命，畏大人，畏聖人之言。小人不知天命而不畏也，狎大人，侮聖人之言。」
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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_004.txt, lines 528–538. XUN 4:11:6, ed. Beida p. 47; Knoblock 1:194
- 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: 08554b144575d85b9581973d03eab20e9b72d16f741153bf44bd1062d03c7366. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.