Zi Gong asked, "Who is better, a teacher or a businessman? Confucius said, "The teacher has passed, but the business is inferior." Said, "but will the teacher recover then?" Confucius said, "Too much is too late." "

translate

Zi Gong asked, "Who is better than Zhuan Xu?" Confucius said, "Zhuan Xu has gone too far for Shang Bo to catch up." Zi Gong said, "So Zhuan Xu is stronger?" Confucius said, "Too much is too late."

interpret

"Too much is not enough" embodies an important principle of Confucianism, namely "the golden mean". Zhu, a famous Neo-Confucianism scholar in Song Dynasty, commented that Zi is ambitious and broad-minded, but goodness is harsh and difficult, so it is often too moderate. Xia Zi believes in obedience and narrow scale, so it is often inferior. There are too few Otawa, and they are all tiny differences, a thousand miles apart. Confucius taught students to follow the golden mean, thinking that excess and deficiency are equally bad.