Book 17: 《陽貨》 Yang Huo
《陽貨》 Passage 17.5
Legge Translation (1861)
Gongshan Furao, when he was holding Bi, and in an attitude of rebellion, invited the Master to visit him, who was rather inclined to go.Zilu was displeased, and said: "Indeed, you cannot go! Why must you think of going to see Gongshan?"
The Master said: "Can it be without some reason that he has invited ME? If any one employ me, may I not make an eastern Zhou?"
Word by word
- 公山弗擾 gōng shān fú rǎo
Gongshan Furao, proper name
- 公 surname component: Gongshan (proper name)
- 山 name component: Gongshan (proper name)
- 弗 name component: Furao (proper name)
- 擾 name component: Furao (proper name)
Steward of the Ji family who held the town of Bi and rebelled against them.
- 以 yǐ
coverb: using, by means of
- 費 bì
Bi, place name
read bì as the name of the Ji family's stronghold (朱熹: 費，音秘), not fèi.
- 畔 pàn
to revolt, rebel
Loangraph for 叛 (pàn), 'to rebel'.
- 召 zhào
to summon
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius
- 欲 yù
to want to, be inclined to
- 往 wǎng
to go
- 子路 zǐ lù
Zilu, proper name (disciple of Confucius)
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 路 name component: Zilu (proper name)
- 不說 bù yuè
displeased, not pleased
- 不 not
- 說 pleased, delighted (loangraph for 悅)
說 is a loangraph for 悅 ('pleased'); negated, the pair means 'displeased'.
- 曰 yuē
to say
- 末之 mò zhī
there is nowhere to go
- 末 there is not, there is nowhere (negative existential)
- 之 to go, to go to a place
末 functions as a negative existential ('there is not'); 之 is the verb 'to go'.
- 也已 yě yǐ
final particles: that's all, so be it
- 也 sentence-final particle
- 已 final particle: that's all, so be it; to stop
A pair of clause-final particles marking resigned finality.
- 何必 hé bì
why must, why need
- 何 why
- 必 must, necessarily
- 公山氏 gōng shān shì
Mr. Gongshan, proper name with honorific suffix
- 公 surname component: Gongshan (proper name)
- 山 name component: Gongshan (proper name)
- 氏 honorific suffix: Mr., of the clan
- 之 zhī
genitive/nominalizing particle: of, 's
The first of two consecutive 之: this one marks 公山氏 as attributive, distinct from the following 之 which is the verb 'to go to'.
- 之 zhī
to go to
The second of two consecutive 之: a genuine verb 'to go to', distinct from the nominalizing 之 immediately before it.
- 也 yě
final particle closing a rhetorical question
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius
- 曰 to say
- 夫 fú
topic-introducing demonstrative particle: that, this person
- 召 zhào
to summon
- 我 wǒ
me
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: the one who
- 而豈…哉 ér qǐ … zāi
rhetorical negation frame: how could it be that...!, surely not
- 而 conjunctive particle: and yet, but
- 豈 rhetorical adverb: how could it be that...
- 哉 final exclamatory particle
而 loosely connects the topic to this question; 豈…哉 is the standard 'how could it be...!' rhetorical frame.
- 徒 tú
for nothing, without purpose, in vain
- 如 rú
if
- 有 yǒu
there is, there exists (someone who...)
- 用 yòng
to employ, use
- 我 wǒ
me
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: the one who
- 吾 wú
I, me
- 其 qí
modal particle: perhaps, might (tentative)
- 為 wéi
to make, create, act as
- 東周 dōng zhōu
Eastern Zhou, proper name for a revived eastern-based Zhou state
- 東 east, eastern
- 周 Zhou (dynasty name)
Confucius alludes to reviving Zhou culture from a new eastern base, echoing the historical founding of the Eastern Zhou.
- 乎 hū
interrogative final particle
The rhetorical-question sense is already carried by the modal attached to 其 and by punctuation, so 乎 itself is not carried by any distinct word.
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