Book 10: 《鄉黨》 Xiang Dang (In the Village)
《鄉黨》 Passage 10.7
Legge Translation (1861)
When fasting, he thought it necessary to have his clothes brightly clean and made of linen cloth.When fasting, he thought it necessary to change his food, and also to change the place where he commonly sat in the apartment.
Word by word
- 齊 zhāi
ritual fasting, purification before a sacrifice
Read zhāi, not qí: the character stands for 齋, the fast and purification kept before a sacrifice (朱熹: 齊，側皆反).
- 必 bì
always, invariably (marks a fixed habitual practice)
- 有 yǒu
to have, wear on the body
- 明衣 míng yī
special garment worn during ritual purification/fasting
- 明 pure, spotlessly clean, bright — signals ritual purity rather than literal brightness
- 衣 garment, robe, clothing
translators diverge on its exact function — fresh ordinary clothes, a robe donned after ritual bathing, or a distinct ritual garment ('spirit coat'); Chin transliterates it as mingyi
- 布 bù
linen or hemp cloth
- 齊 zhāi
ritual fasting, purification before a sacrifice
zhāi reading (ritual fast); distinct from the qí reading meaning 'equal, uniform'
- 必 bì
always, invariably (marks a fixed habitual practice)
- 變食 biàn shí
to change, alter one's diet
- 變 to change, alter
- 食 food, diet, what one eats
- 居 jù
at home, in one's residence
here contrasts ordinary daily life with the special state of ritual fasting
- 必遷坐 bì qiān zuò
to invariably change, move to a different seat or sitting place
- 必 always, invariably — marks a fixed habitual practice
- 遷 to move, shift from one place to another
- 坐 seat, sitting place
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