Book 12: 《顏淵》 Yan Yuan
《顏淵》 Passage 12.11
Legge Translation (1861)
The Duke Jing of Qi asked Confucius about government. Confucius replied: "There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son.""Good!" said the duke; "if, indeed, the prince be not prince, the minister not minister, the father not father, and the son not son, although I have my revenue, can I enjoy it?"
Word by word
- 齊景公 qí jǐng gōng
Duke Jing of Qi, ruler of the state of Qi
- 齊 Qi, name of the state ruled by Duke Jing
- 景 Jing, the posthumous title of the duke of Qi
- 公 duke, ruler (title)
- 問 wèn
to ask, inquire about
- 政 zhèng
government, governing, statecraft
- 於 yú
preposition marking the indirect object: to, of
- 孔子 kǒng zǐ
Confucius, Master Kong
- 孔 Kong, surname component of Confucius's name
- 子 honorific suffix: master, teacher
- 孔子 kǒng zǐ
Confucius, Master Kong
- 孔 Kong, surname component of Confucius's name
- 子 honorific suffix: master, teacher
- 對曰 duì yuē
replied, answered saying
- 對 to reply, respond (to a superior)
- 曰 to say, said
- 君 jūn
ruler, lord
- 君 jūn
to act as a true ruler, to fulfill the role of ruler
- 臣 chén
minister, subject
- 臣 chén
to act as a true minister, to fulfill the role of minister
- 父 fù
father
- 父 fù
to act as a true father, to fulfill the role of father
- 子 zǐ
son
- 子 zǐ
to act as a true son, to fulfill the role of son
- 公曰 gōng yuē
the duke said
- 公 duke (referring to Duke Jing)
- 曰 to say, said
- 善 shàn
good, well said, well put
- 哉 zāi
final exclamatory particle
- 信 xìn
truly, indeed
- 如 rú
if, supposing
- 君 jūn
ruler, lord
- 不 bù
not
Roberts fuses the negation into the single word 'misrules', which does the same job as 不 plus the following verbal 君.
- 君 jūn
to act as a true ruler, to fulfill the role of ruler
- 臣 chén
minister, subject
- 不 bù
not
- 臣 chén
to act as a true minister, to fulfill the role of minister
- 父 fù
father
- 不 bù
not
- 父 fù
to act as a true father, to fulfill the role of father
- 子 zǐ
son
- 不 bù
not
- 子 zǐ
to act as a true son, to fulfill the role of son
- 雖 suī
although, even if
- 有 yǒu
to have, there being
- 粟 sù
grain, millet
- 吾 wú
I, me
- 得 dé
to get to, be able to
- 而 ér
conjunctive particle linking two verbs: and, and then
- 食 shí
to eat
- 諸 zhū
fusion particle: it + interrogative (之乎)
諸 here fuses the object pronoun 之 ('it') with the sentence-final interrogative 乎; every translator supplies 'it' and a question mark, so only the pronoun surfaces as a word while the interrogative force is carried by punctuation.
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