The Analects of Confucius·Yang Huo" records: "Confucius said: Only women and small people are difficult to raise. If you are close, you will not have grandchildren, and if you are far away, you will resent." If you understand it literally, Confucius regarded women and small people as People are juxtaposed, and the two are said to be "difficult to raise". This is also the meaning that has been interpreted most by later generations. Therefore, this statement in "The Analects" has become a point where many people accuse Confucius of despising women. Combined with the later Confucian belief that "men are superior to women," it seems to be confirmed that Confucius despised women.

However, Confucius lived more than 2,000 years ago, and the language environment at that time was still very different from that of later generations. The word "woman" as understood today is a general term, referring to all women, but in fact in ancient times In Chinese, "woman" also has another layer of reference, which refers to a specific group or individual person.

Xing Bing, a master of Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty, once commented on this sentence in "The Analects" and said: "This chapter says that women and villains have no integrity and are difficult to raise. Therefore, those who are difficult to raise should be kept close to them. If you are too dissatisfied, you will be resentful if you are estranged. This is not what Confucius said. Women do not refer to all women. In fact, there are also women who are virtuous by nature

Zhu Xi, a great scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty, explained in more detail, saying that "women" refers to "concubines", which is the later Confucian term for servants. To avoid misunderstandings again, on the basis of Zhu Xi’s interpretation, Confucius’ words were expanded and changed to “Only the concubines and concubines and the villains on the left and right have to work hard to be raised by the upper and lower, but it is difficult to raise them. ”

In fact, Confucius lost his father when he was 3 years old, and he had been dependent on his mother since he was a child. He had a very deep affection for his mother and paid great attention to filial piety. "Fang", "Parents only worry about their illness", etc., all represent Confucius's advocacy of filial piety to parents. If the "woman" in "Only women and villains are difficult to raise" is a general term, wouldn't Confucius also include his own mother? Criticized, this obviously contradicts the filial piety advocated by Confucius. Therefore, the "woman" in this sentence is actually a special term.

So what does "only women and villains are difficult to raise" mean. What?

What Confucius said is actually a partial structure in ancient Chinese. The central word is "woman", and "和小人" is the attributive (and does not mean "harmony", but "和"). is "like"), the whole sentence means: a woman who is as immoral as a villain. In order to highlight the tone, Confucius added the word "wei" in front of it, which translates to: only this kind of woman is as immoral as a villain. Women are difficult to raise. Why are they difficult to raise? Confucius explained in the second half of the sentence that when they are close to them, they will be arrogant and rude, and later generations will also understand "difficult to raise" as being difficult to get along with. .