Book 11: 《先進》 Xian Jin (Former Eras)
《先進》 Passage 11.10
Legge Translation (1861)
When Yan Yuan died, the Master bewailed him exceedingly, and the disciples who were with him said: "Master, your grief is excessive!""Is it excessive?" said he.
"If I am not to mourn bitterly for this man, for whom should I mourn?"
Word by word
- 顏淵 yán yuān
Yan Yuan (Yan Hui), Confucius's favorite disciple
- 顏 surname element in the name Yan Yuan (Yan Hui)
- 淵 Yuan, courtesy-name element in 顏淵; Yan Hui's given name is 回, his courtesy name 子淵
- 死 sǐ
to die, pass away
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius
- 哭 kū
to wail, weep in mourning
- 之 zhī
him, it (object pronoun)
- 慟 tòng
excessive, uncontrolled grief
- 從者 cóng zhě
disciples, followers, those in attendance
- 從 to follow, accompany
- 者 nominalizing particle: those who, the ones who
- 曰 yuē
said
- 子 zǐ
Master, vocative address to Confucius
- 慟矣 tòng yǐ
is excessively grieved, an assertion of a realized state
- 慟 excessive grief, being overcome with sorrow
- 矣 final particle asserting a completed or realized state
- 曰 yuē
said
- 有…乎 yǒu … hū
rhetorical question frame: am I...?, is it that...?
- 有 to have, be in a state of (forming a rhetorical question with 乎)
- 乎 interrogative final particle
- 慟 tòng
excessive grief
- 非 fēi
not (negating a conditional: if not)
- 夫人 fú rén
this man, referring to Yan Yuan
- 夫 demonstrative: that, this (referring to a specific person)
- 人 man, person
夫 here is the demonstrative (read fú), 'that man', referring to Yan Hui; not the compound 夫人 'wife, lady'.
- 之 zhī
marks the object moved to the front: 夫人 stands before 為慟 — 'for THAT man' (非夫人之為慟 = 非為夫人慟)
- 為 wèi
coverb: for, for the sake of
- 慟 tòng
to grieve, mourn deeply
- 而 ér
then, in that case (consequential conjunction)
- 誰為 shuí wèi
for whom (interrogative object fronted before the coverb 為)
- 誰 who? whom? (interrogative pronoun)
- 為 coverb: for, for the sake of (governing the fronted interrogative 誰)
Classical Chinese fronts the interrogative pronoun before its coverb; 誰為 is literally 'whom for'.
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