原文
叔孙武叔①语大夫于朝曰:“子贡贤于仲尼。”
子服景伯以告子贡。
子贡曰:“譬之宫墙②,赐之墙也及肩,窥见室家之好。夫子之墙数仞③,不得其门而入,不见宗庙之美,百官④之富。得其门者或寡矣。夫子之云,不亦宜乎!”
译文
An officer of the Court in Confucius' native State, expressing admiration for a disciple of Confucius, remarked in presence of the other Court officers: "In my opinion this disciple of Confucius is superior to Confucius himself." Afterwards, when somebody reported what the officer had said to the disciple above referred to, the latter said: "Let me use the comparison of two buildings. The wall of my building only reaches to the shoulders; one has only to look over and he can see all that is valuable in the apartments. But the wall of the Master's building is hundreds of feet high. If one does not find the door to enter by, he can never see the treasures of art and the glory of the men that are in the holy temple. Perhaps, however, there are few men who have found the door. I do not therefore wonder that the officer spoke as he did."
评论
本节先写叔孙武叔在朝廷中称赞子贡“贤于仲尼”,即认为子贡优于孔子;后面子服景伯把这话转告给子贡。子贡于是拿“宫墙”作比喻,来说明自己与孔子的差距。“赐之墙也及肩,窥见室家之好”,辜鸿铭译成自己那道墙只到肩膀高,人们一眼就能看见里面的好处;而“夫子之墙数仞,不得其门而入,不见宗庙之美,百官之富”,则译为孔子的围墙高达“hundreds of feet”,若找不到门进入,就看不到里面圣庙般的壮美和人物、艺术的丰富。最后“夫子之云,不亦宜乎”,意思是:能真正进入孔子之学境界的人本来就很少,所以武叔说出那样的话,也不足为奇。整个评论重点是在说明,子贡并不是直接反驳一句“孔子更高”,而是用“是否找得到门”来解释为什么常人会误判孔子。