Book 19: 《子張》 Zi Zhang
《子張》 Passage 19.5
Legge Translation (1861)
Zixia said: "He, who from day to day recognizes what he has not yet, and from month to month does not forget what he has attained to, may be said indeed to love to learn."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 second syllable of Zixia, a disciple of Confucius
Lau uses the Wade-Giles romanization Tzu-hsia for the same name
- 曰 yuē
said, spoke
- 日 rì
daily, day by day
- 知 zhī
to know, be aware of, recognize
- 其 qí
possessive/subject pronoun: he, his, one's
Peimin Ni and Ames & Rosemont use a passive construction ('is yet to be learned') that drops the explicit pronoun
- 所亡 suǒ wú
what one lacks, what is missing
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, what
- 亡 to lack, be without — read wú, equivalent to 無, not the wáng reading 'to die, perish'
- 月 yuè
monthly, month by month
- 無 wú
negative particle: not, never
Roberts and Chin recast the clause in positive terms ('is mindful of', 'remember'), absorbing the negation into the verb
- 忘 wàng
to forget
- 其 qí
possessive/subject pronoun: he, his, one's
Peimin Ni and Ames & Rosemont use a passive construction ('has already been mastered') that drops the explicit pronoun
- 所能 suǒ néng
what one is able to do, one's ability
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, what
- 能 ability, what one is able to do
- 可謂 kě wèi
can be said (to be), may be called
- 可 can, may (modal of possibility)
- 謂 to call, say, describe as
- 好學 hào xué
to love learning, be devoted to study
- 好 to love, be fond of — read hào, the verb 'to love'; not the adjective hǎo 'good'
- 學 learning, study
- 也已矣 yě yǐ yǐ
emphatic final particle cluster: indeed, truly, assuredly
- 也 final particle of assertion or affirmation
- 已 final particle of emphasis, 'that is all'
- 矣 final particle marking completed or asserted state
a stacked sentence-final particle cluster intensifying the assertion; English renders it, when at all, as an inserted adverb ('indeed', 'truly') or an appended tag ('I should say') rather than a discrete word
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