Book 11: 《先進》 Xian Jin (Former Eras)
《先進》 Passage 11.11
Legge Translation (1861)
When Yan Yuan died, the disciples wished to give him a great funeral, and the Master said: "You may not do so."The disciples did bury him in great style. The Master said: "Hui behaved towards me as his father. I have not been able to treat him as my son. The fault is not mine; it belongs to you, O disciples."
Word by word
- 顏淵 yán yuān
Yan Yuan, courtesy name of Yan Hui, Confucius's disciple
- 顏 surname: Yan
- 淵 Yuan, courtesy-name element in 顏淵; Yan Hui's given name is 回, his courtesy name 子淵
His personal name is Hui (回); Yan Yuan is a courtesy-name form. Translators vary between the two names, and Peimin Ni/Chin bracket both.
- 死 sǐ
to die, pass away
- 門人 mén rén
disciples, students
- 門 gate; by extension, a teacher's school or household
- 人 person
- 欲 yù
to want, wish to
- 厚葬 hòu zàng
to give a lavish, sumptuous burial
- 厚 lavish, generous in quantity
- 葬 to bury, inter
- 之 zhī
him (object pronoun, referring to Yan Yuan)
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master (respectful title for Confucius)
- 曰 said
- 不可 bù kě
not permissible, unacceptable
- 不 not
- 可 permissible, acceptable
- 門人 mén rén
disciples, students
- 門 gate; by extension, a teacher's school or household
- 人 person
- 厚葬 hòu zàng
to give a lavish, sumptuous burial
- 厚 lavish, generous in quantity
- 葬 to bury, inter
Peimin Ni, Roberts, and Ames & Rosemont collapse the verb into a pro-verb ('did so'/'did it anyway'), still covering the repeated action of 厚葬.
- 之 zhī
him (object pronoun, referring to Yan Yuan)
Peimin Ni, Roberts, and Ames & Rosemont fuse the object into the pro-verb 'did so/did it', leaving no separate pronoun to quote.
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master (respectful title for Confucius)
- 曰 said
- 回 huí
Hui, personal name of Confucius's disciple Yan Hui
- 也 yě
topic-marking particle: as for...
- 視 shì
to look upon, regard as, treat as
- 予 yú
me (first-person object pronoun)
- 猶 yóu
as, like, as if
- 父 fù
father
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
The clause simply ends with a period in English.
- 予 yú
I (first-person subject pronoun)
- 不得 bù dé
unable to, could not
- 不 not
- 得 to be able to, to get to
- 視 shì
to treat as, regard as
Watson renders it concretely as 'bury' rather than the more abstract 'treat as', matching the funeral context.
- 猶 yóu
as, like
- 子 zǐ
son
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
As with the 也 ending the previous clause, English relies on the period alone.
- 非 fēi
it is not the case that, not
- 我 wǒ
me, my
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
- 夫 fú
distal demonstrative pronoun: that, those
it is absorbed into the following noun phrase (e.g. Lau's 'these others' renders 夫二三子 as a whole, not 夫 alone).
- 二三子 èr sān zǐ
you, my disciples (a set idiom of address for a small group of followers)
- 二 two
- 三 three
- 子 disciple, young gentleman (term of address)
Literally 'two-three sons'; a stock Analects term addressing one's disciples as a group, not a literal count.
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
The final clause again ends simply with a period or exclamation mark in English; 也's assertive force is not given a separate word.
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