Book 12: 《顏淵》 Yan Yuan
《顏淵》 Passage 12.17
Legge Translation (1861)
Ji Kang asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied: "To govern means to rectify. If you lead on the people with correctness, who will dare not to be correct?"Word by word
- 季康子 jì kāng zǐ
Ji Kangzi, head of the Ji clan and de facto ruler of Lu
- 季 surname: Ji
- 康 Kang, posthumous epithet in 季康子 (Ji Kangzi, i.e. Jisun Fei 季孫肥)
- 子 honorific suffix Master, completing the name Ji Kangzi
- 問 wèn
to ask, inquire of
- 政 zhèng
government, the business of governing
- 於 yú
coverb marking the person consulted: of, to
- 孔子 kǒng zǐ
Confucius, Master Kong
- 孔 surname element: Kong
- 子 honorific suffix: Master
- 孔子 kǒng zǐ
Confucius, Master Kong
- 孔 surname element: Kong
- 子 honorific suffix: Master
- 對曰 duì yuē
replied, answered (in response to a superior's question)
- 對 to respond, reply (to a superior)
- 曰 to say, introduces direct speech
- 政 zhèng
government, to govern (the term being defined)
- 者…也 zhě … yě
topic-and-copula frame marking a definitional judgment: X is Y, X means Y
- 者 topic-marking nominalizing particle: as for..., that which is
- 也 final particle asserting identity or definition: is, equals
政 and 正 are homophones (both zhèng), so the reply defines government as rectitude by punning on the two words' shared sound, a wordplay no English rendering can carry directly. Slingerland, Peimin Ni, Ames & Rosemont, Lau, and Chin flag it by attaching the shared Chinese term or pinyin in parentheses to both words; Legge, Roberts, and Watson translate only the sense and give no sign of the pun.
- 正 zhèng
to be correct, be rectified
- 子 zǐ
you (respectful second-person address)
- 帥 shuài
to lead, to set an example for others to follow
- 以 yǐ
coverb: by means of, with
- 正 zhèng
correctness, rectitude, as a standard to follow
- 孰 shú
who? (interrogative pronoun)
- 敢 gǎn
to dare, have the audacity to
- 不 bù
not
- 正 zhèng
correct, properly ordered, in the right
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