Book 14: 《憲問》 Xian Wen (Xian Asked)
《憲問》 Passage 14.22
子路問事君。子曰：「勿欺也，而犯之。」
Legge Translation (1861)
Zilu asked how a ruler should be served. The Master said: "Do not impose on him, and, moreover, withstand him to his face."Word by word
- 子路 zǐ lù
Zilu, disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 路 second character of the name Zilu, a disciple of Confucius
- 問 wèn
to ask, inquire
- 事君 shì jūn
to serve a ruler
- 事 to serve
- 君 ruler, lord
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, i.e. Confucius (respectful title)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 勿 wù
negative imperative particle: do not, must not
- 欺 qī
to deceive, cheat
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion, marking a pause at the end of a clause
- 而 ér
adversative conjunction: but, yet
- 犯 fàn
to oppose, confront openly
Here 犯 means to stand up to or contradict the ruler face-to-face, not to commit an offense.
- 之 zhī
him, referring to the ruler
A text file for Anki 2.1.55 or later: File → Import. The cards go to the deck “Analects”, tagged by passage, and importing again updates them instead of adding copies.
Discussion
No one has started on this passage yet.
Start the discussion in r/analects