Book 1: 《學而》 Xue Er (Studying)
《學而》 Passage 1.15
Legge Translation (1861)
Zigong said: "What do you pronounce concerning the poor man who yet does not flatter, and the rich man who is not proud?"The Master replied: "They will do; but they are not equal to him, who, though poor, is yet cheerful, and to him, who, though rich, loves the rules of propriety."
Zigong replied: "It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'As you cut and then file, as you carve and then polish.' — The meaning is the same, I apprehend, as that which you have just expressed."
The Master said: "With one like Ci, I can begin to talk about the odes. I told him one point, and he knew its proper sequence."
Word by word
- 子貢 zǐ gòng
Zigong, disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 貢 second syllable of Zigong's name, lit. 'tribute'
- 曰 yuē
to say, said
- 貧 pín
poor, impoverished
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: but, yet
- 無 wú
without, lacking
- 諂 chǎn
to flatter, be obsequious
- 富 fù
rich, wealthy
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: but, yet
- 無 wú
without, lacking
- 驕 jiāo
arrogant, haughty
- 何如 hé rú
what about it?, what do you think?
- 何 what (in the question 'what about...?')
- 如 to be like; how (in the question 'what about it?')
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 可 kě
acceptable, all right
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
- 未若 wèi ruò
not as good as, not equal to
- 未 not yet
- 若 to be equal to, as good as (in a negated comparison)
- 貧 pín
poor, impoverished
- 而 ér
concessive conjunction: and yet
- 樂 lè
to delight in, take joy in
Peimin Ni, Ames & Rosemont, Lau and Watson translate the variant text 貧而樂道 'delighting in the Way', the reading of 皇本 and of the 史記 quotation of this passage; the received text has 樂 alone.
- 富 fù
rich, wealthy
- 而 ér
concessive conjunction: and yet
- 好禮 hào lǐ
to love ritual propriety, be fond of the rites
- 好 to be fond of, love (verb)
- 禮 ritual propriety, the rites
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: one who
Turns the preceding clause into 'one who is rich and loves ritual'. English nominalizes with a relative clause, spreading the function across several words.
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
Closes the nominalized predicate.
- 子貢 zǐ gòng
Zigong, disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 貢 second syllable of Zigong's name, lit. 'tribute'
- 曰 yuē
to say, said
- 詩 shī
the Odes, the Book of Songs
- 云 yún
to say, state
- 如 rú
as, like
- 切 qiē
to cut, saw (bone or horn)
from the Odes (Shijing, 衛風·淇奧); cutting and polishing bone/jade is a metaphor for self-cultivation
- 如 rú
as, like
- 磋 cuō
to file, polish (ivory)
- 如 rú
as, like
- 琢 zhuó
to carve, chisel (jade)
- 如 rú
as, like
- 磨 mó
to grind, polish (stone)
- 其…之…與 qí … zhī … yú
rhetorical question frame: is this not the case?, perhaps this is what is meant
- 其 modal particle: perhaps, could it be that
- 之 grammatical particle marking a fronted object before the verb
- 與 interrogative final particle (variant of 歟)
其...與 marks a tentative rhetorical question; the 之 fronts 斯 as the object of 謂
- 斯 sī
this, this thing (the verse just cited)
- 謂 wèi
to mean, refer to
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 賜 cì
Ci, Zigong's given name
Confucius addresses Zigong by his given name Ci, a mark of intimacy
- 也 yě
particle marking a pause after a name, direct address
- 始 shǐ
for the first time, only now
- 可 kě
can, may
- 與 yǔ
with
- 言 yán
to speak of, discuss
- 詩 shī
the Odes, the Book of Songs
- 已 yǐ
perfective particle: now, already
First half of the 已矣 sentence-final pair. Its emphatic 'now at last' force is carried by the English exclamation as a whole rather than by one word.
- 矣 yǐ
exclamatory final particle
Second half of the 已矣 pair, marking the remark as an exclamation. English uses the exclamation mark and tone of the sentence instead.
- 告 gào
to tell, inform
- 諸 zhū
him, it (fused object pronoun)
- 往 wǎng
what has gone by, the past
- 而 ér
additive conjunction: and
- 知 zhī
to know, perceive
- 來 lái
what is to come, the future
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: that which
Nominalizes 來 into 'what is to come'. English fuses the nominalizer into the word 'what', so it has no separate exponent.
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