Book 14: 《憲問》 Xian Wen (Xian Asked)
《憲問》 Passage 14.15
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "The Duke Wen of Jin was crafty and not upright. The Duke Huan of Qi was upright and not crafty."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 晉文公 jìn wén gōng
Duke Wen of Jin, ruler and hegemon of the state of Jin
- 晉 Jin, name of a Zhou-era state
- 文 Wen, posthumous epithet of Duke Wen of Jin (晉文公)
- 公 duke, ruler of a state
- 譎 jué
crafty, deceitful, devious
Chin reads 譎 as political pragmatism (a hegemon's expedient strategy) rather than personal deceit; the other translators read it as moral craftiness.
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: but, yet
- 不 bù
not
- 正 zhèng
upright, correct, principled
- 齊桓公 qí huán gōng
Duke Huan of Qi, ruler and hegemon of the state of Qi
- 齊 Qi, name of a Zhou-era state
- 桓 Huan, posthumous epithet of Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公)
- 公 duke, ruler of a state
- 正 zhèng
upright, correct, principled
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: but, yet
- 不 bù
not
- 譎 jué
crafty, deceitful, devious
Chin reads 譎 as political pragmatism (a hegemon's expedient strategy) rather than personal deceit; the other translators read it as moral craftiness.
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