Book 14: 《憲問》 Xian Wen (Xian Asked)
《憲問》 Passage 14.30
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "I will not be concerned at men's not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 不 bù
not
- 患 huàn
worry about, be troubled by
- 人 rén
other people, others
- 之 zhī
subordinating particle marking a clause as a nominalized object
Marks 人不己知 as a nominalised clause serving as the object of 患. Slingerland and Chin supply the complementiser 'that'; Legge, Peimin Ni, Watson and Lau use a genitive ('men's', 'others'', 'of others'); Roberts and Ames & Rosemont restructure into a passive and render neither.
- 不 bù
not
- 己 jǐ
oneself
The object pronoun is fronted before the verb because of the negation (不知己 → 不己知), a regular classical-Chinese rule.
- 知 zhī
know, understand
- 患 huàn
worry about, be troubled by
- 其 qí
his, her, one's own (reflexive)
- 不能 bù néng
lack ability, be incapable
- 不 not
- 能 to be able, have ability
Ames & Rosemont paraphrases the clause as lacking a 'reason' for others’ recognition rather than lacking ability outright, an interpretive gloss rather than a literal rendering.
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
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