Book 14: 《憲問》 Xian Wen (Xian Asked)
《憲問》 Passage 14.9
Legge Translation (1861)
Some one asked about Zichan. The Master said: "He was a kind man."He asked about Zixi. The Master said: "That man! That man!"
He asked about Guan Zhong. "For him," said the Master, "the city of Pian, with three hundred families, was taken from the chief of the Bo family, who did not utter a murmuring word, though, to the end of his life, he had only coarse rice to eat."
Word by word
- 或 huò
someone, an unspecified person (indefinite pronoun)
- 問 wèn
to ask about
- 子產 zǐ chǎn
Zichan, courtesy name of Gongsun Qiao, chief minister of Zheng
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 產 chan, second syllable in the name Zichan
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius
- 曰 said
- 惠 huì
kind, generous, beneficent
- 人 rén
a man, a person
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
- 問 wèn
to ask about
- 子西 zǐ xī
Zixi, courtesy name of a minister; 朱熹 takes him as the Chu chief minister Gongzi Shen
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 西 xi, second syllable in the name Zixi
- 曰 yuē
said
- 彼哉 bǐ zāi
that one!, a curt, dismissive exclamation
- 彼 that one, that man (pointing away, dismissively)
- 哉 exclamatory final particle
- 彼哉 bǐ zāi
that one!, a curt, dismissive exclamation
- 彼 that one, that man (pointing away, dismissively)
- 哉 exclamatory final particle
- 問 wèn
to ask about
- 管仲 guǎn zhòng
Guan Zhong, chief minister of Qi under Duke Huan
- 管 guan, first syllable in the name Guan Zhong
- 仲 zhong, second syllable in the name Guan Zhong
- 曰 yuē
said
- 人 rén
a man, a person
Commentators disagree whether 人 here is a neutral designation or a veiled compliment; translators split between the literal 'a man' and moral readings like 'humane' or 'authoritative'.
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
- 奪 duó
to seize, confiscate, take by force
- 伯氏 bó shì
the Bo clan, the head of the Bo family
- 伯 Bo, a family name (literally eldest)
- 氏 clan or family-name marker
- 駢邑 pián yì
Pian, name of a district (also transliterated Ping, Bian, P'ien)
- 駢 pian, first syllable of the place name Pian
- 邑 district, town, settlement
- 三百 sān bǎi
three hundred (households)
- 三 three
- 百 hundred
- 飯 fàn
to eat, subsist on
- 疏食 shū shí
coarse food, plain fare
- 疏 coarse, plain, unrefined
- 食 food
- 沒齒 mò chǐ
to the end of one's life, until death (lit. until the teeth wear out)
- 沒 to the end of, until the exhaustion of
- 齒 years of life, age (lit. teeth)
- 無 wú
not, without, there was no
- 怨言 yuàn yán
resentful words, grievance, complaint
- 怨 resentful, aggrieved
- 言 word, speech
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