Book 15: 《衛靈公》 Wei Ling Gong (Duke Ling of Wey)
《衛靈公》 Passage 15.25
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "In my dealings with men, whose evil do I blame, whose goodness do I praise, beyond what is proper? If I do sometimes exceed in praise, there must be ground for it in my examination of the individual.This people supplied the ground why the three dynasties pursued the path of straightforwardness."
Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, teacher (referring to Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 吾 wú
I, me (first-person pronoun)
- 之 zhī
topicalizing particle: marks the preceding word as topic
- 於 yú
coverb marking relation: to, toward, with, in regard to
- 人 rén
people, others
- 也 yě
particle marking the end of a topic clause
- 誰 shuí
who, whom (interrogative pronoun)
- 毀 huǐ
to condemn, disparage, speak ill of
- 誰 shuí
who, whom (interrogative pronoun)
- 譽 yù
to praise, commend
- 如 rú
if, supposing
- 有 yǒu
there is, exists
- 所…者 suǒ … zhě
nominalizing frame: the one(s) whom, someone
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, the one whom
- 者 nominalizing particle: the one who, those who
- 譽 yù
to praise, commend
- 其 qí
he, they, that (referring to the one praised)
- 有所試 yǒu suǒ shì
has something in him that has been put to the test
- 有 there is, exists; marks that something did in fact occur
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which
- 試 to test, try, put to the proof
- 矣 yǐ
final particle marking completed or asserted fact
- 斯民 sī mín
these people, this people (referring to the common people of the present)
- 斯 this, these (demonstrative pronoun)
- 民 the people, the common people
- 也 yě
topic-marking pause particle
English relies on sentence position rather than a word to mark this pause.
- 三代 sān dài
the Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang, Zhou)
- 三 three
- 代 dynasty, generation, era
- 之 zhī
possessive/modifying particle: 's, of
- 所以 suǒ yǐ
that whereby; the reason why, the ground on which
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, the means by which
- 以 by means of, whereby; therefore
- 直道 zhí dào
the straight Way, the straight path
- 直 straight, upright
- 道 way, path
- 而 ér
conjunctive particle: and, and then
- 行 xíng
to walk, to practice, to carry out
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
English closes the sentence with a period rather than a discrete particle.
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