Zeng Dian

[4][5] The Analects (11.26) records a famous conversation between Confucius, Zeng Dian, and three other disciples of the Master—Zilu, Ran You, and Zihua.

When Confucius asked Zeng Dian, Zeng unhurriedly finished playing his zither, and said he wanted something different:[6] "At the end of spring, with the spring clothes already been finished, I would like, in the company of five or six young men and six or seven children, to cleanse ourselves in the Yi River, to revel in the cool breezes at the Altar for Rain, and then return home singing.

[6] According to the interpretation of the influential philosophers Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, this passage signifies Confucius' view that the mind of a real sage is at ease and not always worrying about the moral boundary, and is capable of enjoying an artistic way of life and celebrating the creations of Heaven.

[8] Zeng Shen would later teach Confucius' grandson Zisi (Kong Ji), who was in turn the teacher of Mencius, thus beginning a line of transmitters of orthodox Confucian traditions.

[4] During the Tang dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong posthumously awarded Zeng Dian the nobility title of Count of Su (宿伯).