Book 15: 《衛靈公》 Wei Ling Gong (Duke Ling of Wey)
《衛靈公》 Passage 15.3
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Ci, you think, I suppose, that I am one who learns many things and keeps them in memory?"Zigong replied: "Yes, — but perhaps it is not so?"
"No," was the answer; "I seek a unity all-pervading."
Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 賜 cì
Ci, Zigong's given name
- 也 yě
vocative pause particle after a name of address
- 女 rǔ
you, archaic second-person pronoun
女 here stands for 汝 and is read rǔ, 'you' (朱熹: 女, 音汝).
- 以…為 yǐ … wéi
regard as, take to be, consider to be
- 以 coverb marking how someone/something is regarded: as
- 為 to be, to count as, in a regard-as construction
- 予 yú
me, I, first-person pronoun
- 多 duō
much, many, extensively
- 學 xué
to learn, study
- 而 ér
coordinating conjunction: and
- 識 zhì
to remember, keep in mind, retain
Read zhì, 'to remember, retain', as 志 (朱熹: 識, 音志); Slingerland's 'come to understand' takes it as shí instead.
- 之 zhī
it, them, referring to what was learned
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: one who, the one who
- 與 yú
interrogative final particle, marks a yes/no question
Only Watson supplies an explicit tag question; the rest mark the question with inversion and a question mark alone.
- 對曰 duì yuē
replied, answered
- 對 to respond, reply, especially to a superior
- 曰 said, spoke
- 然 rán
yes, that is so
- 非 fēi
not, negation
- 與 yú
interrogative final particle, marks a yes/no question
Rendered as the question-forming inversion 'Is...?' by most translators; Legge uses a declarative with a question mark, and Watson fuses it with the negation as the contraction isn't.
- 曰 yuē
said, speaker attribution
- 非 fēi
no, that is not it, negative response
- 也 yě
assertive final particle, marks a declarative statement
- 予 yú
I, first-person subject pronoun
- 一 yī
one, a single thing or principle
- 以 yǐ
coverb: by means of, with
- 貫 guàn
to string through, thread together, unify
- 之 zhī
it, them, referring to all his learning and knowledge
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