This is an example of what one page of an Open Adaptive Edition can look like: a spread from The Analects, an Analects Editions title, in its Digital Edition. The passage is Book 2, Chapter 15, on why reading and reflection belong together, in traditional Chinese with pinyin and in James Legge’s English translation.
A two-page spread from The Analects, alive on screen. Press Read to me to hear the passage in Mandarin and English, with each character and word lit as it is read. Tap a marked character for its pinyin, meaning and sound.
Living edition · Edition current, last updated November 4, 2026
Ready. Keyboard: K play or pause, J previous, L next (while focus is in this player or spread).
Book IILearning and Reflection
02.15
On learning and thinking
From Book II · 為政
「
子曰：而不則，而不則。
Zǐ yuē:Xué ér bù sī zé wǎng,sī ér bù xué zé dài.
James Legge's translation
The Master said,‘Learning without thought is labour lost;thought without learning is perilous.’
A reflective paraphrase
Read without reflecting, and what you learn slips away. Reflect without reading, and your thinking loses its footing.
The saying sets two habits side by side and asks us to keep both: take in what others have learned, then turn it over in your own mind until it is yours.
14Analects Editions · Digital EditionThe Analects · 論語
The AnalectsBook II · Chapter 15
A practice, not a finish line
Read deeply. Think it through.
In an age of fast information it is easy to collect facts without ever weighing them, or to form opinions without reading anything at all. This short line keeps the two in balance: reading gives thinking something to work on, and thinking turns reading into understanding.
Read it.Think it through.Return and read again.
Key characters
xuéto learn, to study
sīto think, to reflect
wǎnglost, bewildered
dàiin danger, perilous
A note for the reader
Classical Chinese invites more than one thoughtful rendering. This short paraphrase is offered for reflection beside Legge's translation.
Context
This is chapter 15 of Book 2 of the Analects. The twenty books are named after their opening characters, so Book 2 is 為政 (Wei zheng). Legge published this translation in volume 1 of The Chinese Classics in 1861.
Living edition
Digital Editions are Open Adaptive Editions: versioned editions that are kept up to date with corrections, notes and new material, so the copy you read is always the current one. Voices come from your own device, so they vary by browser.
English translation: James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1 (1861)15
Analects Editions · Digital EditionThe Analects · 論語