Book 19: 《子張》 Zi Zhang
《子張》 Passage 19.18
Legge Translation (1861)
The philosopher Zeng said: "I have heard this from our Master: — 'The filial piety of Meng Zhuang, in other matters, was what other men are competent to, but, as seen in his not changing the ministers of his father, nor his father's mode of government, it is difficult to be attained to.'"Word by word
- 曾子 zēng zǐ
Master Zeng, Zengzi (disciple of Confucius)
- 曾 surname: Zeng (Zengzi, a disciple of Confucius)
- 子 honorific suffix: master (attached to a surname)
- 曰 yuē
said
- 吾 wú
I, me
- 聞 wén
to hear
- 諸 zhū
contraction of 之 (it) and 於 (from): from, at
諸 fuses the object pronoun 之 with the coverb 於; most translators restructure the sentence so neither part surfaces as a separate word.
- 夫子 fū zǐ
the Master (Confucius)
- 夫 element of an honorific title: master, teacher
- 子 honorific suffix: master (title for a revered teacher)
- 孟莊子 mèng zhuāng zǐ
Meng Zhuangzi (a grandee of Lu)
- 孟 surname component of a proper name: Meng
- 莊 name component of a proper name: Zhuang
- 子 honorific suffix: master (part of a proper name)
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: 's, of
- 孝 xiào
filial piety, devotion to one's parents
- 也 yě
topic-marking particle: marks a pause after the topic
- 其他 qí tā
the other aspects, the rest
- 其 pronoun: that, the other (referring to remaining aspects)
- 他 other, another
- 可能 kě néng
can be matched, could be emulated
- 可 can, may, is possible to
- 能 to be able, can accomplish
可能 ('can be matched') and 難能 later in the passage form a deliberate matched pair, contrasting what others could equal against what only Meng Zhuangzi achieved.
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
- 其 qí
he, his (referring to Meng Zhuangzi)
- 不 bù
not, negates the following verb
- 改 gǎi
to change, replace, remove from office
- 父 fù
father
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: 's, of
Watson and Chin restructure this clause around a relative construction ('appointed by', 'who had worked with'), so the possessive is not carried by a distinct word.
- 臣 chén
minister, official
- 與 yǔ
and, with
- 父 fù
father
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: 's, of
- 政 zhèng
government, governmental policy
- 是 shì
this, that (referring back to the preceding situation)
Legge, Slingerland, and Ames & Rosemont use an impersonal 'it is difficult to...' construction, so 是's demonstrative force surfaces through the following clause rather than through a separate word.
- 難能 nán néng
difficult to match, hard to accomplish
- 難 difficult, hard
- 能 to accomplish, manage, be capable of
難能 pairs with 可能 earlier in the passage: what others could equal (可能) versus what is uniquely hard to equal (難能).
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
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