Book 17: 《陽貨》 Yang Huo
《陽貨》 Passage 17.20
Legge Translation (1861)
Ru Bei wished to see Confucius, but Confucius declined, on the ground of being sick, to see him. When the bearer of this message went out at the door, (the Master) took his lute and sang to it, in order that Bei might hear him.Word by word
- 孺悲 rú bēi
Ru Bei, proper name
- 孺 Ru, first syllable of the personal name Ru Bei
- 悲 Bei, second syllable of the personal name Ru Bei
- 欲 yù
to wish, want to
- 見 jiàn
to see, have an audience with
- 孔子 kǒng zǐ
Confucius
- 孔 Kong, surname element in the name Confucius
- 子 master, honorific suffix in the name Confucius
Object of 見 (the one Ru Bei wishes to see); Roberts elides the object entirely, Chin uses the pronoun "him".
- 孔子 kǒng zǐ
Confucius
- 孔 Kong, surname element in the name Confucius
- 子 master, honorific suffix in the name Confucius
Subject of 辭 (the one who declines).
- 辭 cí
to decline, excuse oneself
- 以 yǐ
on the grounds of, by reason of, citing
- 疾 jí
illness, sickness
- 將命者 jiāng mìng zhě
messenger, the one who conveys the message
- 將 to carry out, convey (a message or order)
- 命 message, order, command
- 者 nominalizing particle: one who, the one who
將 here is the verb 'to convey, carry out (an order)', not the adverb 'about to'; with nominalizing 者, 將命者 = 'the one who conveys the message'.
- 出 chū
to go out, exit
- 戶 hù
door
- 取 qǔ
to take up, pick up
- 瑟 sè
se, a stringed zither instrument
- 而 ér
coordinating conjunction: and
- 歌 gē
to sing
- 使 shǐ
causative: to make, cause to
- 之 zhī
third-person pronoun: him, referring to the messenger
Legge and Roberts substitute the proper name 'Bei'/'Ru Bei' in the grammatical slot this pronoun fills, making Ru Bei rather than the messenger the explicit hearer.
- 聞 wén
to hear
- 之 zhī
third-person pronoun: it, him, referring to the singing
Distinct referent from 之 at index 25: this 之 is the object of 聞, what is heard (the singing/Confucius), not who hears.
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