Book 17: 《陽貨》 Yang Huo
《陽貨》 Passage 17.25
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Of all people, girls and servants are the most difficult to behave to. If you are familiar with them, they lose their humility. If you maintain a reserve towards them, they are discontented."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 唯 wéi
exclusive focus: only, precisely
- 女子 nǚ zǐ
women, girls (as a class)
- 女 woman, female
- 子 suffix denoting a person or type of person
Disputed construction: read either as women in general or, taking the household setting and the parallel with 小人, as female servants/attendants specifically. Translators split; renderings are recorded as given, not reconciled.
- 與 yǔ
and, together with
- 小人 xiǎo rén
petty people, small-minded men
- 小 small; low in rank or standing
- 人 person, people
Disputed construction, paired with 女子: read either as the usual moral 'petty man' or, in this household context, as male servants/attendants. Translators split; renderings are recorded as given, not reconciled.
- 為 wéi
copula: to be, to count as
- 難養 nán yǎng
hard to provide for, difficult to nurture
- 難 difficult, hard to do
- 養 to nurture, provide for, look after
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
- 近之 jìn zhī
to draw close to them, be too familiar with them
- 近 to draw close to, be intimate or familiar with
- 之 them, object pronoun referring back to the subject
- 則 zé
conditional connective: then, in that case
- 不孫 bù xùn
insolent, immodest, lacking in deference
- 不 not
- 孫 modest, deferential (loangraph for 遜)
孫 read as loangraph for 遜 (modest, deferential); 不孫 negates that, giving 'insolent'.
- 遠之 yuǎn zhī
to keep at a distance from them, be distant from them
- 遠 to keep at a distance from, be distant from
- 之 them, object pronoun referring back to the subject
- 則 zé
conditional connective: then, in that case
- 怨 yuàn
to resent, bear a grudge, complain
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