Book 19: 《子張》 Zi Zhang
《子張》 Passage 19.11
Legge Translation (1861)
Zixia said: "When a person does not transgress the boundary line in the great virtues, he may pass and repass it in the small virtues."Word by word
- 子夏 zǐ xià
Zixia, a disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 夏 name element in Zixia, a disciple of Confucius
Roberts's translation names the speaker Zizhang; the source text here is Zixia (子夏).
- 曰 yuē
said
- 大德 dà dé
the greater virtues
- 大 great, major, of primary importance
- 德 virtue, moral quality
Most translators render 德 as 'virtue'; Lau reads it as 'matters', and Ames & Rosemont keep 'excellence' here but shift to 'affairs' in the parallel 小德.
- 不 bù
not
- 踰 yú
to overstep, transgress
- 閑 xián
boundary, threshold
A fence or limit one does not cross, not the unrelated sense 'leisure, idle time' also carried by 閑.
- 小德 xiǎo dé
the lesser virtues
- 小 small, minor, of lesser importance
- 德 virtue, moral quality
- 出入 chū rù
latitude, leeway in either direction
- 出 to go out, exit
- 入 to come in, enter
- 可 kě
permissible, acceptable
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
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