Analects / Book 14.10, Xian Wen

Analects Passage on Poverty Without Resentment: Text, Translation, and Commentary

Analects Passage on Poverty Without Resentment: Text, Translation, and Commentary with original text, pinyin, a literal rendering, a readable translation, source location, key terms, and a careful modern reading.

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Analects poverty without resentment original Chinese pinyin translation meaning

Analects, Book 14.10, Xian Wen: read "子曰：貧而無怨難，富而無驕易。" before the English explanation.

Original text

子曰：貧而無怨難，富而無驕易。

Zi yue, pin er wu yuan nan, fu er wu jiao yi.

Literal layer

The Master said: To be poor and without resentment is difficult; to be wealthy and without arrogance is easier.

Readable layer

Analects 14.10 treats poverty without resentment as a harder moral test than wealth without arrogance, without praising deprivation for its own sake.

Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern from The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access collection — **Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern; Fujiwara no Yukinari; Mary Griggs Burke Collection, 2015; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.**Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern is used as a public-domain manuscript-style object for dialogue and passage comparison on Analects Poverty Without Resentment. The fit is semantic: the page asks readers to inspect Book 14.10, Xian Wen and the term pin, while the image remains illustrative rather than proof of the exact manuscript, author portrait, or historical scene.

Reader focus

What this page helps you decide

Analects 14.10 says that being poor without resentment is difficult, while being wealthy without arrogance is easier. The passage is not romantic praise of poverty. It compares two moral pressures. Poverty can produce resentment because deprivation is hard to bear; wealth can produce arrogance, but avoiding arrogance is presented as the easier task. The line asks readers to notice different burdens without treating either poverty or wealth as morally simple.

Watch pin, yuan, fu; these terms decide where the literal layer and the readable layer separate.
Compare this page with poverty and integrity before using the line as advice about money or status.

The Teaching Scene

This block uses Analects, Book 14.10, Xian Wen as the anchor, with "子曰：貧而無怨難，富而無驕易。" kept in front of the explanation.

The Comparative Shape: The sentence is built as a comparison: pin er wu yuan nan, fu er wu jiao yi. Poor without resentment is difficult; rich without arrogance is easy. The contrast should be kept intact. If only the first half is quoted, the line can sound like a harsh demand placed on the poor. If only the second half is stressed, the difficulty of deprivation disappears. The page keeps both halves so the moral comparison remains visible.

Poverty As Pressure: Pin names poverty or material lack. The passage does not call poverty good in itself. It treats poverty as a condition that places pressure on the person. That matters because Confucian ethics is not asking readers to admire deprivation as a virtue. The difficulty lies in not letting hardship become corrosive resentment.

Without Resentment: Wu yuan means without resentment, complaint, or grievance. Yuan is emotionally and morally loaded. The line does not deny that poverty can be unjust or painful. It says that remaining without resentment under poverty is hard. The word nan, difficult, keeps the tone sober. This is not easy advice offered from a distance.

Wealth And Arrogance: Fu er wu jiao turns to wealth without arrogance. Jiao can mean pride, arrogance, or overbearing self-importance. Wealth creates its own moral danger: the wealthy person may become inflated, careless, or contemptuous. Yet the passage calls avoiding this easier than poverty without resentment. That comparative judgment is the center of the line.

The Word That Changes The Passage

Not Anti-Wealth: The passage does not say wealth is wrong. Other Analects passages make the route to wealth morally important. Analects 7.16, for example, criticizes wealth and rank gained without rightness. Analects 14.10 has a different focus: how material condition tests emotional and moral posture. The line should not be used as a simple anti-wealth slogan.

Not Blaming The Poor: A careless reading can make the line sound like blame directed at poor people for resentment. The wording is more careful than that because it says the task is difficult. The difficulty is the point. Poverty without resentment is morally demanding precisely because deprivation presses on the person. A fair modern use should preserve that difficulty and avoid turning the passage into scolding.

Analects Poverty Without Resentment Citation Limit: A responsible citation should include both the poverty and wealth halves and identify Analects 14.10. The phrase is best used to discuss moral pressure under different material conditions. It should not be quoted as proof that poor people should be silent, or that wealthy people are morally safe if they avoid obvious arrogance.

Analects Poverty Without Resentment Reading Payoff: This page differs from the poverty-and-integrity page because Analects 7.16 centers on joy under simple conditions and unjust gain, while Analects 14.10 compares resentment and arrogance. It differs from self-cultivation pages because the test here is material condition. The article gives readers a source-based way to cite the line without romanticizing poverty or simplifying wealth.

Keep the term set visible here: pin, yuan, fu. The reading changes if one of these terms is translated too smoothly.

The reading should end in one practical move: Compare this page with poverty and integrity before using the line as advice about money or status.

Next reading

Links chosen for reading movement

Confucius Quotes About Poverty And Integrity: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects Poverty Without Resentment, open Confucius Quotes About Poverty And Integrity to compare pin with a second checked passage; the path starts from Book 14.10, Xian Wen, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Confucius Quotes About Self-cultivation: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects Poverty Without Resentment, open Confucius Quotes About Self-cultivation to test the translation boundary against a neighboring source; the path starts from Book 14.10, Xian Wen, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Confucius Quotes About The Gentleman: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects Poverty Without Resentment, open Confucius Quotes About The Gentleman to move from this wording to a concrete reader workflow; the path starts from Book 14.10, Xian Wen, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Analects Passage on Daily Self-examinationFrom Analects Poverty Without Resentment, open Analects Passage on Daily Self-examination to keep the next step tied to source evidence instead of a loose related list; the path starts from Book 14.10, Xian Wen, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.