Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
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.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
38 Han characters · 24 distinct forms · 9 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.
「禮起於何也？」
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 7 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
Watch recurrence: 不 × 4 則 × 4 而 × 3 欲 × 2 能 × 2 無 × 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
Does 不能不爭 deny contention?
Compare the editorial answer
No. It presents contention as unavoidable under the stated condition.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 欲而不得，則不能無求；求而無度量分界，則不能不爭
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Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
荀子 · 樂論篇第二十則不能無、生術之變盡於是矣。故人不能不樂，樂則不能無形，形而不為道，則不能無亂。
荀子 · 解蔽篇第二十一人生而有人生而有知，知而有志。志也者、臧也，然而有所謂虛，不以所已臧害所將受謂之虛。
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Keep different negatives apart未之有也論語 · Let parallel clauses constrain a reading巧言令色，鮮矣仁論語 · Follow a condition and its consequence行有餘力，則以學文論語 · Follow a condition and its consequence過則勿憚改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_019.txt, lines 14–22. XUN 19:1a:1, Beida p.308; Knoblock 3:55
- 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: 9859e7cc314477f79fa75253aa409ec7b1200e6afcc6b0385e6e2d721ac2de96. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.