Book 19: 《子張》 Zi Zhang
《子張》 Passage 19.8
Legge Translation (1861)
Zixia said: "The mean man is sure to gloss his faults."Word by word
- 子夏 zǐ xià
Zixia, courtesy name of the disciple Bu Shang
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 夏 here, second syllable of the disciple's name Zixia
- 曰 yuē
said
- 小人 xiǎo rén
the petty man, the small-minded person
- 小 small; petty, morally base
- 人 person, man
- 之…也 zhī … yě
nominalizing frame marking a subordinate clause: when...
- 之 clause-nominalizing particle: marks a subordinate 'when...' clause
- 也 clause-final particle closing a subordinate 'when...' clause
The classical NP之VP也 construction turns 'the petty man errs' into a subordinate topic clause, rendered by most translators as a 'when...' clause; Legge and Ames & Rosemont instead fold the subject straight into a main-clause sentence, so nothing corresponds to the frame.
- 過 guò
err, transgress
- 必 bì
surely, always, invariably
- 文 wén
to gloss over, cover up, disguise with a fine appearance
Verb use of 文, not the noun 'culture, pattern' found elsewhere in the Analects; this is the passage's crux.
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