Book 1: 《學而》 Xue Er (Studying)
《學而》 Passage 1.9
曾子曰：「慎終追遠，民德歸厚矣。」
Legge Translation (1861)
The philosopher Zeng said: "Let there be a careful attention to perform the funeral rites to parents, and let them be followed when long gone with the ceremonies of sacrifice; — then the virtue of the people will resume its proper excellence."Word by word
- 曾子 zēng zǐ
Master Zeng, a disciple of Confucius (Zeng Shen)
- 曾 surname Zeng, of the disciple Zeng Shen (Master Zeng)
- 子 master, honorific suffix for a respected teacher
- 曰 yuē
said
- 慎終 shèn zhōng
to be careful about death, attend earnestly to funeral rites for parents
- 慎 to be careful, cautious, circumspect
- 終 the end; here, death and the funeral rites marking it
- 追遠 zhuī yuǎn
to continue reverence toward distant ancestors, maintain sacrifices to the long departed
- 追 to pursue, follow after; here, to continue and maintain
- 遠 distant, far off; here, ancestors long departed
- 民 mín
the people, the common people
- 德 dé
virtue, moral character
- 歸厚 guī hòu
to turn toward generosity, become substantial and sincere
- 歸 to return to, revert to
- 厚 thick, substantial, deep, said of virtue or character
- 矣 yǐ
final particle marking a completed or resultant state
A text file for Anki 2.1.55 or later: File → Import. The cards go to the deck “Analects”, tagged by passage, and importing again updates them instead of adding copies.
Discussion
No one has started on this passage yet.
Start the discussion in r/analects