Analects / Book 7.22, Shu Er

Analects Passage on Three People Walking Together: Text, Translation, and Commentary

Analects Passage on Three People Walking Together: 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 three people walking together original Chinese pinyin translation meaning

Analects, Book 7.22, Shu Er: read "子曰：三人行，必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。" before the English explanation.

Original text

子曰：三人行，必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。

Zi yue, san ren xing, bi you wo shi yan. Ze qi shan zhe er cong zhi, qi bu shan zhe er gai zhi.

Literal layer

The Master said: When three people walk together, there must be a teacher for me among them. I choose what is good in them and follow it; what is not good, I change in myself.

Readable layer

Analects 7.22 turns ordinary company into a disciplined learning method: follow the good you see and use the not-good as a mirror for self-correction.

Nigatsudo Burned Sutra from The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access collection — **Nigatsudo Burned Sutra; Unidentified artist; Purchase, Mrs. Jackson Burke Gift, 1978; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.**Nigatsudo Burned Sutra is used as a public-domain manuscript-style object for dialogue and passage comparison on Analects Three People Walking Together. The fit is semantic: the page asks readers to inspect Book 7.22, Shu Er and the term san ren xing, 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 7.22 says that when three people walk together, there must be a teacher for Confucius among them. The next sentence explains the method: choose what is good and follow it; notice what is not good and change it in oneself. The passage does not say every view is equally wise. It asks the learner to pay attention, select, imitate, and correct. Ordinary company becomes useful because the learner has disciplined judgment.

Watch san ren xing, shi, shan; these terms decide where the literal layer and the readable layer separate.
Compare this page with seeing the worthy and daily self-examination before using the quote as simple praise of openness.

The Teaching Scene

This block uses Analects, Book 7.22, Shu Er as the anchor, with "子曰：三人行，必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。" kept in front of the explanation.

The Ordinary Scene: San ren xing is deliberately ordinary: three people walking together. The setting is not a court, school, or formal ritual scene. That plainness matters because the passage teaches that learning can happen in common company. It does not need ideal conditions. The reader is asked to become alert to instruction wherever conduct appears. This ordinary scale is part of the quote's appeal, but it should not erase the judgment that follows.

A Teacher Among Them: Bi you wo shi yan says there must be a teacher for me among them. Shi can be a teacher, but here the teacher may be formal or informal. A companion can teach by excellence, error, habit, speech, courage, restraint, or failure. The line lowers the distance between learner and teacher while keeping the learner responsible for discernment.

Choosing The Good: Ze qi shan zhe er cong zhi is the positive half of the method. The learner chooses what is good and follows it. Choice comes before imitation. This protects the passage from passive absorption. Confucius is not saying to copy everyone. He is saying to recognize the good where it appears and make it part of one's own practice.

Changing The Not Good: Qi bu shan zhe er gai zhi gives the corrective half. What is not good does not become a reason for contempt. It becomes a prompt to change oneself. Gai is change or correction. The moral energy turns inward, so the learner does not only judge others from a safe distance. The passage repairs comparison by making another person's weakness useful for self-examination.

The Word That Changes The Passage

Not Universal Agreement: The line is often quoted as everyone can be my teacher. That is close but incomplete. The full passage is more demanding because it includes selection and correction. It does not ask the reader to accept every opinion or imitate every behavior. It asks the reader to learn through difference: follow what is worthy, and turn what is not worthy into a check on the self.

Learning While Moving: The walking scene also keeps the passage dynamic. Learning is not sealed inside a text or classroom. It can happen as people move together through ordinary life. But movement alone is not enough. The learner has to notice, compare, choose, and change. That is why this page reads the quote as practical discipline rather than charming humility.

Analects Three People Walking Together Citation Limit: A responsible citation should include the second sentence. If only the first sentence is quoted, readers may hear a broad compliment to all companions. With the choosing and changing clauses included, the passage becomes a method of moral learning. The source location, Analects 7.22, should stay visible when the line is used in essays, classrooms, or quotation collections.

Analects Three People Walking Together Reading Payoff: This page differs from the learning-from-others quote page by giving a passage-focused reading with Chinese, pinyin, and a translation boundary. It differs from seeing-a-worthy-person pages because Analects 7.22 begins from ordinary company and builds a two-part method. The article gives readers a source-based path from a famous line to its full discipline of selection and correction.

Keep the term set visible here: san ren xing, shi, shan. The reading changes if one of these terms is translated too smoothly.

The reading should end in one practical move: Compare this page with seeing the worthy and daily self-examination before using the quote as simple praise of openness.

Next reading

Links chosen for reading movement

Confucius Quotes About Learning From Others: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects Three People Walking Together, open Confucius Quotes About Learning From Others to compare san ren xing with a second checked passage; the path starts from Book 7.22, Shu Er, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Confucius Quotes About Humility In Study: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects Three People Walking Together, open Confucius Quotes About Humility In Study to test the translation boundary against a neighboring source; the path starts from Book 7.22, Shu Er, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Analects Passage on Seeing A Worthy PersonFrom Analects Three People Walking Together, open Analects Passage on Seeing A Worthy Person to move from this wording to a concrete reader workflow; the path starts from Book 7.22, Shu Er, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Analects Passage on Daily Self-examinationFrom Analects Three People Walking Together, 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 7.22, Shu Er, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.