Where it came from
What 則 first meant, how it became a function word, and where it stands today.
In the bronze inscriptions 則 is a cauldron beside a knife: the laws engraved on the vessel. From “engraved rule” came the noun, still alive in 規則 “rule” and 原則 “principle”, the verb “to take as one’s model” (8.19’s 唯堯則之), and the conjunction, if this, then by rule that, which is what this page is about. Speech replaced the conjunction with 就. Writing keeps it, above all in 否則, “otherwise”.
Across the books
Densest in Book 17 (12 occurrences).
- 16
- 210
- 32
- 42
- 54
- 65
- 710
- 810
- 93
- 1110
- 121
- 1311
- 147
- 159
- 167
- 1712
- 184
- 197
- 204
How it works
Every job 則 does, counted over its 124 occurrences in the Analects — commonest first. Tap a passage number to see the whole passage.
1Conditional conjunction118× · 95%
This 則 introduces what follows from a condition: “if X, then Y”, like modern 就. The “if” is often not written. The 則 alone tells you the first half was a condition.
- Set in parallel pairs, sorting two situations and their outcomes: 入則孝，出則弟; 邦有道則知，邦無道則愚
- English often answers it with a “when” or an “if” on the other side of the comma instead of a “then” on this one
- Or with a bare “and”: “oversee them with dignity, and the people will be respectful”
In 7.10, 子於是日哭，則不歌, I folded 於, 是, and 則 all into one word, “On”: on days he wept, the Master would not sing.
Gloss then (like 就)
Look for between condition and consequence; the "if" is usually unwritten.
Technical marks a clause as the consequence following a condition, topic, or prior event, translated as then or in that case
5 examples
子曰：「君子不重則不威，學則不固。主忠信，無友不如己者，過則勿憚改。」
The Master said: "If the scholar be not grave, he will not call forth any veneration, and his learning will not be solid.
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."
Legge 1861
The 則 in 過則勿憚改 sits between the fault and the mending, but the condition it announces is a whole clause back, and English marks the clause rather than the join. Seven translators put the conjunction at the front of the sentence:
- “When you have faults”: Legge, Ni, Lau, Chin
- “If you have committed a transgression”: Slingerland, Watson
- “where you have erred”: Ames & Rosemont
The line is repeated word for word at 9.25.
宰我問：「三年之喪，期已久矣。君子三年不為禮，禮必壞；三年不為樂，樂必崩。舊穀既沒，新穀既升，鑽燧改火，期可已矣。」子曰：「食夫稻，衣夫錦，於女安乎？」曰：「安。」「女安則為之！夫君子之居喪，食旨不甘，聞樂不樂，居處不安，故不為也。今女安，則為之！」宰我出。子曰：「予之不仁也！子生三年，然後免於父母之懷。夫三年之喪，天下之通喪也。予也，有三年之愛於其父母乎？」
Zai Wo asked about the three years' mourning for parents, saying that one year was long enough.
"If the superior man," said he, "abstains for three years from the observances of propriety, those observances will be quite lost. If for three years he abstains from music, music will be ruined.
Within a year the old grain is exhausted, and the new grain has sprung up, and, in procuring fire by friction, we go through all the changes of wood for that purpose. After a complete year, the mourning may stop."
The Master said: "If you were, after a year, to eat good rice, and wear embroidered clothes, would you feel at ease?" "I should," replied Wo.
The Master said: "If you can feel at ease, do it. But a superior man, during the whole period of mourning, does not enjoy pleasant food which he may eat, nor derive pleasure from music which he may hear. He also does not feel at ease, if he is comfortably lodged. Therefore he does not do what you propose. But now you feel at ease and may do it."
Zai Wo then went out, and the Master said: "This shows Yu's want of virtue. It is not till a child is three years old that it is allowed to leave the arms of its parents. And the three years' mourning is universally observed throughout the empire. Did Yu enjoy the three years' love of his parents?"
Legge 1861
Confucius to Zai Wo, who has said he could eat fine rice a year into mourning: 女安則為之, you are at ease, then do it. Six of the eight write “then”, and Legge and Lau let the “if” of the first clause carry it.
The tone is the whole point, and the 則, which makes Zai Wo’s comfort the condition, is what says the reproach.
子夏曰：「仕而優則學，學而優則仕。」
Zixia said: "The officer, having discharged all his duties, should devote his leisure to learning. The student, having completed his learning, should apply himself to be an officer."
Legge 1861
仕而優則學，學而優則仕. Slingerland and Lau give the 則 a “then”. Legge, Ni, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont, and Chin let a “should” carry the whole consequence. The line is a chiasmus, office, learning; learning, office, and the two 則 are the joints.
哀公問曰：「何為則民服？」孔子對曰：「舉直錯諸枉，則民服；舉枉錯諸直，則民不服。」
The Duke Ai asked, saying: "What should be done in order to secure the submission of the people?" Confucius replied: "Advance the upright and set aside the crooked, then the people will submit. Advance the crooked and set aside the upright, then the people will not submit."
Legge 1861
The same shape in mirror image: do this, then that; do the opposite, then the opposite. 則民服, 則民不服. Legge, Ni, Roberts, and Watson write “then”; Slingerland, Ames & Rosemont, Lau, and Chin write “and”. Duke Ai’s question uses the particle too, 何為則民服, “what must I do, then the people submit?”, and Confucius’s answer keeps his 則.
季康子問：「使民敬、忠以勸，如之何？」子曰：「臨之以莊則敬，孝慈則忠，舉善而教不能，則勸。」
Ji Kang asked how to cause the people to reverence their ruler, to be faithful to him, and to go on to nerve themselves to virtue. The Master said: "Let him preside over them with gravity; — then they will reverence him. Let him be filial and kind to all; — then they will be faithful to him. Let him advance the good and teach the incompetent; — then they will eagerly seek to be virtuous."
Legge 1861
Three conditions, three consequences, three 則. No “if” anywhere in the Chinese; the 則 alone says that what came before it was one.
- Legge writes “then” for each: “Let him preside over them with gravity; then they will reverence him”
- Watson writes “If” up front and a “then” only for the third
- The other six use a bare “and”: Slingerland “Oversee them with dignity, and the people will be respectful”
In English, that “and” is enough to make the first clause a condition.
2Contrastive 則 (but, as for)5× · 4%
This 則 sets a topic against what came before, with no condition in sight. 仁則吾不知也 is “as for 仁, that I don’t know”. Nothing is being concluded. A contrast is being drawn, and English reaches for “but” or “as for”. The paired 一則⋯一則, “on the one hand⋯ on the other”, is the same job done twice.
Gloss but; as for; on the one hand⋯
Look for a topic set off in front of it with no condition in sight — 仁則, 躬行君子則 — and the pair 一則⋯一則.
Technical marks a contrast between parallel or correlative clauses, translated as whereas, but, or as for
3 examples
憲問恥。子曰：「邦有道，穀；邦無道，穀，恥也。」「克、伐、怨、欲不行焉，可以為仁矣？」子曰：「可以為難矣，仁則吾不知也。」
Xian asked what was shameful. The Master said: "When good government prevails in a state, to be thinking only of salary; and, when bad government prevails, to be thinking, in the same way, only of salary; — this is shameful."
"When the love of superiority, boasting, resentments, and covetousness are repressed, this may be deemed perfect virtue."
The Master said: "This may be regarded as the achievement of what is difficult. But I do not know that it is to be deemed perfect virtue."
Legge 1861
Asked whether mastering four vices amounts to 仁, Confucius grants “difficult” and then 仁則, as for 仁, that he doesn’t know. Legge, Lau, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont, and Chin write “but”; Slingerland and Ni “as for”; Watson both, “But as for humaneness”. The topic comes first and the 則 closes it off, exactly as 是則 or 此則 would.
子曰：「文，莫吾猶人也。躬行君子，則吾未之有得。」
The Master said: "In letters I am perhaps equal to other men, but the character of the superior man, carrying out in his conduct what he professes, is what I have not yet attained to."
Legge 1861
In book-learning Confucius counts himself the equal of others. 躬行君子則, as for living as a gentleman, that he hasn’t managed yet. Nothing follows from anything here. Two things are set side by side, and the 則 marks the turn.
- “but”: all seven who word it
- Four of them go on “but as for”: Slingerland, Ames & Rosemont, Watson, Chin
- Ni leaves the turn to a new sentence
子曰：「父母之年，不可不知也。一則以喜，一則以懼。」
The Master said: "The years of parents may by no means not be kept in the memory, as an occasion at once for joy and for fear."
Legge 1861
The paired form: a parent’s age is 一則 a joy, 一則 a fear.
- “on the one hand⋯ on the other”: Slingerland, Ni, Ames & Rosemont, Lau
- Watson: “For one thing⋯ for another”
- Legge folds the pair into “at once for joy and for fear”; Roberts and Chin give it no word at all
There’s no condition and no consequence here. Only two sides of one fact, each with its own 則.
Also counted in the book — rarer, and not always a function word:
3The verb "to model on"1× · 1%
Look for used as a noun 'standard, rule' or verb 'to take as a model'
Technical a standard or model to follow, or to model oneself on it
1 example
子曰：「大哉，堯之為君也！巍巍乎！唯天為大，唯堯則之。蕩蕩乎！民無能名焉。巍巍乎！其有成功也；煥乎，其有文章！」
The Master said: "Great indeed was Yao as a sovereign! How majestic was he! It is only Heaven that is grand, and only Yao corresponded to it. How vast was his virtue! The people could find no name for it.
How majestic was he in the works which he accomplished! How glorious in the elegant regulations which he instituted!"
Legge 1861
to model oneself on, take as one's model