司马迁·《孔子世家赞》英译

太史公曰：『“诗有之：“高山仰止，景行行止。”虽不能至，然心乡往之。

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余读孔氏书，想见其为人。适鲁，观仲尼庙堂，车服礼器，诸生以时习礼其家，余低回留之，不能去云。　

        “天下君王，至于贤人，众矣！当时则荣，没则己焉！孔子布衣，传十余世，学者宗之。自天子王侯，中国言六艺者，折中于夫子，可谓至圣矣！” 』

A Eulogy Upon Confucius

Szu-Ma Chen

The odes have it thus: —“We may gaze up to the mountain’s brow; we may travel along the greater road;” signifying that although we cannot hope to reach the goal, still we may push on thitherwards in spirit.

While reading the works of Confucius, I have always fancied I could see the man as he was in life; and when I went to Shantung I actually beheld his carriage, his robes, and the material parts of his ceremonial usages. There were his descendants practicing the old rites in their ancestral home; —and I lingered on, unable to tear myself away.

Many are the princes and prophets that the world has seen in its time; glorious in life, forgotten in death. But Confucius, though only a humble member of the cotton-clothed masses, remains among us after many generations. He is the model for such as would be wise. By all, from the Son of Heaven down to the meanest student, the supremacy of his principles is fully and freely admitted. He may indeed be pronounced the divinest of men.