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清 Qing · 文 Prose

为学·版本

On Learning (Wei Xue) — An Extract

彭端淑

Peng Duanshu

名篇Masterpiece 劝学On Perseverance in Study 说理Didactic 哲理Philosophy

天下事有难易乎？
为之，则难者亦易矣；
不为，则易者亦难矣。
人之为学有难易乎？
学之，则难者亦易矣。

Is there difficulty and ease in the affairs of the world?
To do them: what is difficult becomes easy.
Not to do them: what is easy becomes difficult.
Is there difficulty and ease in a man's learning?
To learn: what is difficult becomes easy.

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Meaning

The opening of Peng Duanshu's `On Learning, Addressed to My Nephews and Sons': difficulty and ease are not properties of things but results of whether a person acts. Something undertaken becomes easy; the same thing left unattempted turns what was easy into an obstacle. The argument is then narrowed from all affairs to study specifically — the one thing that most often is put off on the plea of being hard — and the conclusion is left unsaid so that it falls on the reader: if one does not act, the blame is one's own.

天下的事情有困难和容易之分吗？只要去做，那么难的事情也会变得容易；不去做，那么容易的事情也会变得困难。人们做学问有困难和容易之分吗？只要去学，那么难的也会变得容易。

Appreciation

[Structure] The passage is two questions and three answers, and the questions are not looking for information. The first question opens the whole case about the world; the second narrows it to study, which is the actual subject. [Technique] The main device is the pair of opposites — `to do' against `not to do', `difficult' against `easy' — and the pair recurs so often that the passage takes on the manner of a folk rhyme. The final answer is deliberately incomplete: after `to learn, what is difficult becomes easy' there is no matching sentence about not learning, and the omission is the point. [Rhetoric] The question words `is there ...?' and the closing `yi' (`it is so') alternate, so the passage sounds like a catechism. [Mood] It is a homily delivered by an elder, and its force is entirely in the confidence of the assertions, which are stated flatly and without support.

【白话串讲】彭端淑写《为学》：“天下事有难易乎？为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣”——做了，难事也变容易。他讲蜀地穷和尚“一瓶一钵”游南海、富和尚“数年来欲买舟而下，犹未能也”——他说立志去做，比什么都重要。【意象与手法】以设问开篇、以对举立论：两问两答，句式整齐而递进（由「天下事」到「为学」），「为/不为」「学/不学」「难/易」「亦」的反复对举，形成回环递进的节奏；先说理后收束，层层推进，逻辑严密，语言平易而警策。【情感与主旨】勉励后学破除畏难之心、立定笃行之志：难易无定，全在人为，强调「为」与「学」的主动精神，是清代劝学文的典范。【名句点睛】「为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣」以对举句式揭示「难易转化」之理，是全文立论之纲，也是常考的哲理名句。

Background

The passage is the opening of `On Learning, Addressed to My Nephews and Sons' by Peng Duanshu (c. 1699–1779), courtesy name Lezhai, from Danleng in Sichuan; he passed the highest degree in 1733 and served in the Ministry of Personnel and in Guangdong before giving up office to teach at the Jinjiang Academy. His prose is noted for clarity and moral directness, and his family instruction was aimed at the common failing of his age — scholarly men who feared difficulty and took refuge in empty speculation. The famous part of the essay follows this opening and tells of two monks from the remote south of Sichuan: the poor one with a bottle and a bowl reached Nanhai, while the rich one who wanted to buy a boat never managed it in years. The full argument ends by asking whether a youth's will is worth less than that of a monk from the back country.

本篇节选自彭端淑《为学一首示子侄》，是清代劝学文的代表作。彭端淑（约1699—1779），字乐斋，号仪一，四川丹棱人，雍正十一年（1733）进士，历官吏部郎中、广东肇罗道等，晚年辞官讲学于锦江书院，著有《白鹤堂诗文集》《雪夜诗谈》等。彭端淑少时颖悟，十岁能文，与弟端洪、肇洙并称「丹棱三彭」，其文以「清真雅正」著称。清初学术重考据训诂，科举重制艺帖括，士子多畏难而惰于实学；彭端淑「示子侄」之作，正针对后辈「畏难苟安」的通病而发。《为学一首示子侄》先以「天下事有难易乎」总论，提出「为之则难者亦易，不为则易者亦难」的宗旨，继以「蜀之鄙有二僧」的著名故事（贫僧一瓶一钵往南海、富僧数年不成）实证之，最后归结「人之立志，顾不如蜀鄙之僧哉」的劝勉。此「版本」截取全文首段的总论部分，独立成篇，自「天下事有难易乎」至「学之，则难者亦易矣」，是全篇立论之纲，也是「为学」哲理最凝练的表达。彭端淑为官清正、讲学有方，其劝学文字以「理明词达、平易近人」见长，此段正见其「以浅语说深理」的功力。

Art

The whole passage is a closed argument of two questions and three answers, and its effect depends on as much what is left out as on what is said. Each question poses itself as an open enquiry and each answer destroys the openness: `is there difficulty?' `there is none — it depends on acting.' The antitheses — doing and not doing, difficult and easy — are repeated until they become the rhythm of the sentence, and the reader begins to hear the proverb before the proposition has been accepted. The third answer is the cleverest stroke: `to learn, what is difficult becomes easy' is given, but no answer is given for not learning, though the question demanded one. The silence is the admonition — since the argument has already established that inaction is the only thing that can make a thing hard, the nephew who has not studied has, by implication, decided his own difficulty. The prose uses no imagery, no example, no ornament; its whole energy is in the return of `then' (ze) and the flat certainty of `yi' (it is so), and such is its rhythm that the simplest proposition sounds like a law of nature.

文体上，本篇属清代说理散文（论说文），是「示子侄」家训文的总论部分，兼具议论与劝勉的双重性质。结构上极有章法：全段以两问两答构成一个严密的论证闭环。第一问「天下事有难易乎」以设问开篇，看似问难易之有无，实则设下全篇的论题；回答「为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣」以「为/不为」的对举破题，指出难易并非固定属性，而随「为」与「不为」转化——「为之」难者亦易，「不为」易者亦难，两两相对，逻辑上覆盖了全部可能。第二问「人之为学有难易乎」由「天下事」收束到「为学」，是论题的落实与推进——天下之事千端万绪，而作者所论特在「为学」；回答「学之，则难者亦易矣」以「学之」对应「为之」，只答「学」而不答「不学」，留白处正是向子侄的当头棒喝：学之则难者亦易，此理已明，若仍畏难而不学，其咎自取。艺术手法上，最见功力的是「对举与回环」：为/不为、难/易、学/不学、亦易/亦难，反复对举，形成如民歌般的回环节奏；两问两答句式相近而内容递进，由「事」及「学」，由「泛论」及「专论」，层层收束，说理严密而不板滞。语言平易如话，绝无掉书袋之气，正合「示子侄」的家训口吻，是清代古文「清真雅正」风格的标本。

Allusions

The reasoning is not Peng's invention, and every element of it belongs to the older tradition. `To cut and not give up, and metal and stone can be cut through' is Xunzi's argument in `On Learning' for learning that never stops; `what makes the difficult easy' is that doctrine of unceasing effort rendered as a personal resolve. The final shape of `the difficult can be made easy' also echoes Mencius' `all men may become Yao or Shun' and Xunzi's `any man on the road may become Yu', both of which rest on the same optimism about deliberate action; and `not to do' answers to the Analects' `the hill of dust, one basket short — the stopping is up to me'. `Learning' (wei xue) is a term of the school's own — from the Li Ji `Record of the Rites', where it names the work of cultivating the self — and Peng continues a line of instruction that runs through Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan. The couplet about the two monks that follows the passage is the concrete illustration, and it is meant to make the abstraction unarguable.

此段虽不直接用典，其思想血脉却深植于中国劝学传统。「难易之辨」可上溯《周易》「君子以自强不息」与《荀子·劝学》「锲而不舍，金石可镂」——「为之则难者亦易」正是「锲而不舍」的哲学化表述；「不为则易者亦难」则反用其意，警示惰怠之害，与《论语》「譬如为山，未成一篑，止，吾止也」的「止进在我」思想一脉相承。孟子言「人皆可以为尧舜」，荀子言「涂之人可以为禹」，皆主「为」之可能；此段「为之则难者亦易」正是这种「为」的乐观主义在清代的回响。「为学」二字本身即是传统术语：自《礼记·学记》「玉不琢，不成器；人不学，不知道」以降，「为学」指修养学问之工夫，宋儒朱熹「为学工夫」、陆九渊「为学患无疑」皆其常用；彭端淑以「为学」立题，承此学统而更重「行」——不为空谈义理，而落实到一个「为」字，暗合明清之际「经世致用」的实学思潮。后文「蜀鄙二僧」的故事更以贫富对照实证「为」的力量（贫者一瓶一钵往南海，富者欲买舟而不能），与首段总论互为表里。此段以最平实的语言承载了先秦以来「贵行重为」的思想精粹，是劝学文化在清代的一次凝练表达。

Commentary

These two sentences have been the standard text on the question of difficulty for Chinese students for three centuries, and they have remained in the school readers of the Republic and of the People's Republic, which is why most Chinese speakers can quote them without knowing their source. Three values are usually taken from them: that difficulty is not a property of a task but a function of whether it is attempted; that this is a piece of dialectical thinking, the difficult becoming the easy by a movement of practice; and that the piece is a family instruction, written by an uncle to be remembered rather than argued with. Later readers have noted also how modern the tone is — a prose of assertions that would not be out of place in a twentieth-century tract on effort, so that a Qing exam essay can sound like a modern self-help text. It is the clearest instance of the tradition of instruction that teaches by making the argument unanswerable.

此段是《为学一首示子侄》的立论之纲，也是清代劝学文中流传最广的名句之源，历来为蒙学与教材所重。「为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣」以对举句式说出「难易转化」的朴素真理，其价值有三：其一，哲学价值——指出难易并非事物的固定属性，而是实践的函数，「为」改变一切，这既是对「畏难」心理的根治，也是对「事在人为」信念的通俗论证，暗合辩证法的「转化」思想；其二，教育价值——彭端淑以家训之体、父兄之口勉励后学，破除「以难自诿」的借口，其「学之则难者亦易」的劝勉，与《三字经》「子不学，非所宜」同旨而更富理趣，成为历代劝学话语中的名句；其三，文学价值——两问两答的回环结构、平易警策的语言，使说理文具备了如谣谚般的可诵性，故能超越科举制艺而广泛流传。后文「蜀鄙二僧」故事与「人之立志，顾不如蜀鄙之僧哉」的诘问，更使此文由说理而入叙事、由理趣而生意趣，成为清文中的隽品。此「版本」虽为节选，然总论既在，纲领已全，其「为」与「学」的千古教训，至今仍是激励学子立行笃学的不朽箴言。

Prosody

Form Qing didactic prose (an essay of instruction; the question-and-antithesis form)清代论说散文（劝学文，设问对举体）

Rhyme There is no rhyme, but the passage is nearly as regular as verse in its cadence. The antithetical clauses are of matched length — `to do it ... ; not to do it ... ' — so the ear hears a couplet even where there is no rime; and the alternation of the question ending in `hu' and the assertion ending in `yi' produces the same effect as an unrhymed pair.本篇为散体文言，不押韵，而以对举句式的回环与「矣」「乎」等语气词的顿挫取胜：「为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣」两两相对，音节齐整，如对偶句般工稳；「乎」之设问与「矣」之判断相间，一问一答，回环往复，读来朗朗上口。

Tone pattern The voice rises on the question and falls on the answer: `is there difficulty and ease in the affairs of the world?' lifts the pitch; `to do them, the difficult becomes easy' comes down on the decisive syllable and holds it with `yi'. The second question repeats the shape exactly, and since the whole passage is built on that repeated shape, reading it aloud produces the effect of a two-bar phrase played twice — first in general, then applied.句式以四至七字的短句为主，语气由设问而判断、层层递进：「天下事有难易乎」以「乎」字上扬，设问提神；「为之，则难者亦易矣」斩截判断，「矣」字下抑收束；「不为，则易者亦难矣」再起再落，形成回环；「人之为学有难易乎」二次设问，语调复扬；「学之，则难者亦易矣」从容收煞，如长者缓语，余味悠长。

Reading note The music here is entirely a matter of clause-length and of the two particles. The questions, ending in `hu', are raised and open; the answers, ending in `yi', are concluded and final; and because the same two particles are used twice in the same order, the passage acquires the symmetry of a song without any rhyme at all. Within the answers the antithesis supplies its own metre: where the second half balances the first in length, the sentence is heard as a couplet, and where it does not (the last, shortened answer), the unevenness is felt as weight. It is this craft of sound that allows Peng to state the boldest proposition in the essay in the flattest diction, and the flatness is part of the effect: a maxim sounds like a maxim because of where its beats fall.此段的声律之美，在「设问对举、回环递进」的节奏设计，是清代劝学文「以平易之语行铿锵之声」的典范。全文由两问两答构成，句式高度整齐而略有变化：「天下事有难易乎」与「人之为学有难易乎」两设问，句法相同而主语由「天下事」换为「人之为学」，诵读时如二段式的乐句，先泛后专、渐次收拢；「为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣」与「学之，则难者亦易矣」三句判断，皆以「则」字领起、以「矣」字收尾，「矣」字是古汉语表已然、必然的语气词，三处「矣」如三声定音，把「难易转化」之理说得斩钉截铁、不容置疑。而「乎」字的两处设问又恰与「矣」的判断交替：「乎」上扬而「矣」下抑，一扬一抑、一问一答，如钟磬相和，回环往复，使说理之文具备了歌谣般的可诵性。句子的长短亦见匠心：「为之，则难者亦易矣」八字一顿，斩截明快；「不为，则易者亦难矣」再起波澜；末句「学之，则难者亦易矣」七字收束，余韵悠然。这种「以对举立骨架、以语气词定声情」的韵律设计，使最深奥的哲理以最平易的声音说出，诵读之间，理自明、志自奋，正是劝学文「以声感人」的最高境界。

Line by line

天下事有难易乎？为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣。

Is there difficulty and ease in the affairs of the world? To do them: what is difficult becomes easy. Not to do them: what is easy becomes difficult.

天下的事情有困难和容易之分吗？只要去做，那么难的事情也会变得容易；不去做，那么容易的事情也会变得困难。

Are affairs under heaven divided into hard and easy? Act on them, and the hard become easy; do not act, and the easy become hard.

此二句是全段的立论之纲，以设问开篇、以对举立说，揭示「难易转化」的根本法则。「天下事有难易乎」以设问发端，看似问难易之有无，实为下文破题蓄势——若读者顺口答「有」，则正落入作者要破除的执见：难易并非事物的固有属性。「为之，则难者亦易矣；不为，则易者亦难矣」十六字作答，以「为/不为」一对反义动词为枢纽：「为之」则难者亦易——实践的力量使难化为易；「不为」则易者亦难——惰怠的后果使易化为难。两句对举，逻辑上覆盖了全部可能，滴水不漏；「亦」字尤见锤炼——「亦易」「亦难」表示并非「本易」「本难」，而是转化后的结果，强调难易随「为」与「不为」而流转，其关键全在一个「为」字。此二句以最平易的语言说出最深刻的道理：世上无绝对的难易，只有为与不为的分野——畏难者以难自囚，笃行者化难为易，这是对「事在人为」信念最凝练的论证，也是全篇劝学的理论基石。

The two lines are the charter of the passage, opening in question and arguing in pairing, revealing the fundamental law of the conversion of hard and easy. Are affairs under heaven divided into hard and easy? opens by questioning, seemingly asking whether hard and easy exist, in fact storing force for the breaking below — should the reader answer yes offhand, he falls precisely into the fixation the author would break: hard and easy are not inherent properties of things. Act on them, and the hard become easy; do not act, and the easy become hard answers in sixteen characters, with the pair of contrasting verbs act and do not act as the hinge: act, and the hard become easy — the power of practice turns hard to easy; do not act, and the easy become hard — the consequence of sloth turns easy to hard. The two lines pair, logically covering all possibilities, without a crack; the word also shows most the forging — also easy and also hard mean not originally easy and originally hard, but the results after conversion, stressing that hard and easy flow with acting and not acting, the key all in the single word act. The two lines speak the profoundest truth in the plainest language: there is no absolute hard or easy under heaven, only the divide of acting and not acting — the hard-afraid imprison themselves in difficulty, the steadfast in action turn the hard to easy; this is the most condensed argument for the faith that things depend on the doer, and the theoretical foundation of the whole encouragement to learning.

人之为学有难易乎？学之，则难者亦易矣。

Is there difficulty and ease in a man's learning? To learn: what is difficult becomes easy.

人们做学问有困难和容易之分吗？只要去学，那么难的也会变得容易。

Is study divided into hard and easy? Study, and the hard become easy.

此二句由「天下事」收束到「为学」，是论题的落实与推进，也是劝勉的落点。「人之为学有难易乎」紧承上文，以相同的设问句式由泛论转入专论——天下之事千端万绪，作者所要劝勉者，正在「为学」一事；「学之，则难者亦易矣」作答，只答「学之」而不答「不学」，句式较上文省略半句，形成「未说完」的留白——「不为则易者亦难」之理，上文已明，此处不待重言；而子侄辈若仍以「难」自诿，则其咎自取，言外之意正是当头棒喝。此二句的妙处在「递进与呼应」：由「为之」到「学之」，由「天下事」到「人之为学」，句式回环而对象收窄，把普遍的哲理落到具体的劝学，层次分明；「亦」字与上文的两次「亦」呼应，构成「难易转化」的完整论证——为学之难易，全系于一个「学」字，学之则难者亦易，与「为之则难者亦易」同构同理。两句轻轻收住，把「为」的哲学落实为「学」的劝勉，言简而意足，正是「示子侄」家训的亲切口吻，也是全段从理论到实践的完整闭环。

The two lines close from affairs under heaven to study, the grounding and advance of the theme, and the landing of the encouragement. Is study divided into hard and easy? follows the foregoing closely, moving by the same question-form from broad discussion to focused — affairs under heaven are myriad, and what the author would encourage is precisely study. Study, and the hard become easy answers, answering only study and not do not study, the syntax omitting half a clause compared to above, forming the blank of the unsaid — the principle that not studying makes the easy hard has already been made clear, no need to repeat; and if the nephews still shift the blame to difficulty, the fault is their own, the unspoken meaning a blow on the head. The beauty lies in progression and echo: from act to study, from affairs under heaven to man's study, the syntax circling and the object narrowing, the universal philosophy landing on the concrete encouragement to learning, the layers clear; the word also answers the two also's above, forming the complete argument of conversion — the difficulty of study rests entirely on the single word study; study, and the hard become easy, the same structure and reason as act, and the hard become easy. The two lines close lightly, landing the philosophy of acting into the encouragement of study, words brief and meaning sufficient, precisely the intimate tone of the family instruction to nephews, and the complete loop of the passage from theory to practice.

Study

Word focus

为 To do, to act on — the single syllable on which the whole passage turns, opposed throughout to `not to do'; whether a task is hard is made to depend entirely on this verb and not on the task. 「为之，则难者亦易矣」之「为」字，是全段的枢纽字，也是彭端淑劝学思想的核心。「为」训做、从事、实践，先秦典籍中「为学」「为政」「为仁」皆其用例；此处「为之」即「去做它」，与「不为」对举，构成全段立论的支点。这个「为」字的深意有三：其一，写实践的决定性——难易之分不在事之本身，而在为与不为，「为」是唯一能改变难易的力量，这与《荀子·劝学》「为之，则难者亦易」的「行」的哲学一脉相承；其二，写主体的主动性——「为」是主体的自觉行动，非外力所强，畏难者之所以困于难，正在不肯「为」，故「为」字既是指南也是棒喝；其三，与「学」呼应——下文「学之则难者亦易」正是「为之」在为学上的落实，「为」是总纲，「学」是专目，一总一专，层层深入。若以「作」「行」易之，则失其先秦儒学「力行」的深厚渊源；「为」字之选，见出彭端淑承儒「知行合一」传统而以「行」立论的卓识。

难、易 Difficult and easy, not as qualities of things but as results of acting: the couplet is repeated in every clause, so the reader is led to hear difficulty and ease as a pair that follows practice rather than a pair that belongs to the object. 「天下事有难易乎」之「难」「易」二字，是全段论题的载体，也是对举立说的概念支柱。「难」训困难、不易，「易」训容易、平易，二字相反相成，构成全段论证的轴心。其妙处有四：其一，以反义对举立题——「有难易乎」一问，把千头万绪的天下事简化为「难/易」的两极，论题由此确立；其二，以转化破执——作者并不否认难易之别，而指出难易随「为」与「不为」转化，「难者亦易」「易者亦难」，难与易不再是固定属性，而是实践的函数，此论一出，畏难与轻易两种执见同时破除；其三，以相对论理——「难」与「易」皆相对而言，同一事，为之则难者亦易，不为则易者亦难，没有绝对的难易，只有为与不为的取舍，这正是「事在人为」的哲理内核；其四，与「为学」相扣——下文「人之为学有难易乎」把「难易」落到「为学」，为学的难易之别，同样系于学与不学。二字虽常语，经此对举转化，遂成中国劝学文化中最凝练的哲理符号，其「难易转化」的思想，至今仍是指引实践的人生智慧。

亦 Also, still — the particle that completes each of the three answers and marks the transformation (the difficult, which was difficult, still difficult? no: becomes easy); its repetition is what gives the assertions their quiet finality. 「为之，则难者亦易矣」之「亦」字，是句中最不起眼却最见功力的虚词。「亦」训也、同样，表示后一情形与前一情形类同，或表示转化后的新状态。此处「难者亦易」的「亦」，妙处有三：其一，写转化的意外——「难者」本是难，而「亦易」出人意料，一个「亦」字把「难化为易」的辩证过程轻轻点出，仿佛说：谁说难的就不能变易？其二，写对称的严密——「为之则难者亦易，不为则易者亦难」两句中「亦」字对举，构成「难者亦易、易者亦难」的完美对称，逻辑上滴水不漏，读来如对偶句般工整；其三，写语气的从容——「亦」字轻轻一带，不夸张、不渲染，如长者的娓娓劝导，正合「示子侄」的家训口吻——不是疾言厉色的说教，而是平心静气的说理，其说服力正在这份从容。若删「亦」字，则「难者易矣」直截而失流转，「亦」字使全句顿挫生姿、余味隽永。一字之微，见出彭端淑炼字的精细，也是清代古文「以虚词传神」传统的体现。