Book 11: 《先進》 Xian Jin (Former Eras)
《先進》 Passage 11.14
Legge Translation (1861)
Some parties in Lu were going to take down and rebuild the Long Treasury.Min Ziqian said: "Suppose it were to be repaired after its old style; — why must it be altered and made anew?"
The Master said: "This man seldom speaks; when he does, he is sure to hit the point."
Word by word
- 魯 lǔ
Lu, a state in the Zhou confederacy
- 人 rén
people, men
- 為 wéi
to build, construct
- 長府 cháng fǔ
the Long Treasury, a state repository in Lu
- 長 long, spacious (adjective, forming part of a proper name)
- 府 treasury, storehouse, repository
Proper name of a treasury building in Lu; translators split between the adjectival reading 'Long' and Peimin Ni's transliteration 'Chang'.
- 閔子騫 mǐn zǐ qiān
Min Ziqian, disciple of Confucius
- 閔 Min (surname)
- 子 honorific title used in a courtesy name
- 騫 Qian, courtesy-name element in 閔子騫, the courtesy name of Min Sun (閔損); his given name is 損
- 曰 yuē
to say, said
- 仍舊貫 réng jiù guàn
to follow the old way, keep to established practice
- 仍 to follow, continue as before
- 舊 old, former
- 貫 established practice, precedent (lit. a string of coins)
仍 is 因, to keep to; 貫 is glossed 事 by 鄭玄 (in 何晏) and 朱熹, the established usage or affair, so 仍舊貫 is 'keep to the old arrangement'.
- 如之何 rú zhī hé
why not, what about (rhetorical suggestion)
- 如 to treat, deal with, do (about something)
- 之 third-person object pronoun: it, this
- 何 what, how (interrogative)
- 何必 hé bì
why must, why necessarily
- 何 why, what (interrogative)
- 必 surely, necessarily, must
- 改作 gǎi zuò
to alter and remake, rebuild anew
- 改 to change, alter
- 作 to make, remake, do anew
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master (honorific title for Confucius)
- 曰 to say, said
- 夫人 fú rén
that man, this person
- 夫 demonstrative pronoun: that, this
- 人 man, person
夫 here is the demonstrative pronoun 'that', not the noun forming the unrelated compound 夫人 'wife, lady'.
- 不言 bù yán
does not speak, rarely speaks
- 不 not, negation particle
- 言 to speak, talk
- 言 yán
to speak, say
- 必 bì
surely, certainly, inevitably
- 有中 yǒu zhòng
to hit the mark, be on target
- 有 to have, attain, hit (a mark)
- 中 the mark, target; to hit the mark
中 is read zhòng, departing tone, 'to hit the mark', as in 11.19 屢中; not zhōng 'middle'.
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