Book 13: 《子路》 Zi Lu
《子路》 Passage 13.12
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "If a truly royal ruler were to arise, it would still require a generation, and then virtue would prevail."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, teacher (title used for Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 如 rú
if, supposing
- 有 yǒu
to exist, arise, come about
translators phrase the existential verb variously as 'arise', 'rule', or 'have' depending on how they render 王者 as subject or predicate.
- 王者 wáng zhě
a true king, one who truly reigns as king
- 王 king, to reign as a true king
- 者 nominalizing particle: one who, that which
王 is used verbally, 'to reign as king', and 者 nominalizes it: 'one who [truly] kings it'.
- 必 bì
necessarily, inevitably
- 世 shì
a generation
- 而後 ér hòu
and only after, and then
- 而 conjunctive particle: and, and then
- 後 after, afterward
fixed sequencing construction: 而 (and) + 後 (after) mark that the result follows only once the preceding condition is met.
- 仁 rén
benevolence, humaneness
Ames & Rosemont's 'authoritative conduct' reflects their distinctive technical rendering of ren; most translators cluster around benevolence/humaneness.
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