Analects 6.3 · Yong Ye
“He did not vent his anger on others, and he never repeated a mistake.”
Meaning, context, and how to apply it today
不遷怒 不貳過 (bù qiān nù, bù èr guò) means “He did not vent his anger on others, and he never repeated a mistake.” It is a passage from the Analects of Confucius, Book 6 (Yong Ye), Chapter 3.
不遷怒 不貳過
- Pinyin
- bù qiān nù, bù èr guò
- Translation
- He did not vent his anger on others, and he never repeated a mistake.
- Source
- Analects, Book 6 (Yong Ye), Chapter 3
What does this passage mean?
In the third chapter of Yong Ye, Duke Ai of Lu asks which of the disciples loves learning, and Confucius names Yan Hui, giving these two qualities as evidence. The first means not transferring anger aroused by one person onto another; the second means never repeating the same mistake. What stands out is that as evidence of a love of learning, Confucius cites not knowledge or breadth of reading but the ability to govern emotion and correct faults. In the Confucian view, learning meant changing oneself. Yan Hui died young, and Confucius lamented that he had not since met anyone who loved learning.
How can we apply it today?
Bringing stress from the office home to the family, or passing a superior’s scolding down to a junior, is transferring anger. Emotion, like water, flows easily downhill, and someone weaker than us is always at the end of the stream. And being late again, quarreling again, and regretting again for exactly the same reasons as last time is repeating a mistake. Yan Hui’s two qualities were not dazzling talents but the results of training: stopping at the place where the emotion arose, recording the mistake, and fixing its cause. What Confucius called learning was precisely this everyday discipline.
Questions to reflect on
- ·Emotion arising from where are you transferring onto whom?
- ·If you have repeated a mistake recently, what was its cause?
- ·Is learning, for you, a matter of adding knowledge or of changing yourself?
Character-by-character breakdown
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Strokes | Radical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 不 | bù | not | 4 | 一 (one) |
| 遷 | qiān | transfer | 15 | 辵 (walk) |
| 怒 | nù | anger | 9 | 心 (heart) |
| 不 | bù | not | 4 | 一 (one) |
| 貳 | èr | repeat; second | 12 | 貝 (shell) |
| 過 | guò | fault | 12 | 辵 (walk) |
Frequently asked questions
Q. What does “He did not vent his anger on others, and he…” mean?
不遷怒 不貳過 (bù qiān nù, bù èr guò) means “He did not vent his anger on others, and he never repeated a mistake.” It comes from the Analects, Book 6 (Yong Ye), Chapter 3.
Q. Where does this passage appear in the Analects?
It is Analects 6.3: Book 6 (Yong Ye), Chapter 3.
Q. How can this teaching be applied today?
Bringing stress from the office home to the family, or passing a superior’s scolding down to a junior, is transferring anger.