Book 19: 《子張》 Zi Zhang
《子張》 Passage 19.21
Legge Translation (1861)
Zigong said: "The faults of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon. He has his faults, and all men see them; he changes again, and all men look up to him."Word by word
- 子貢 zǐ gòng
Zigong, disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 貢 Gong, courtesy-name element in 子貢, the courtesy name of Duanmu Ci (端木賜); his given name is 賜
- 曰 yuē
said, spoke
- 君子 jūn zǐ
gentleman, exemplary person
- 君 lord, ruler; 君子 is literally a lord's son
- 子 son; 君子 is literally a lord's son, one of the ruling class, which the Analects makes a term of character
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: of
- 過 guò
fault, error, transgression
- 也 yě
final particle marking a topicalized clause
- 如 rú
like, similar to
- 日月 rì yuè
sun and moon
- 日 sun
- 月 moon
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: of
- 食 shí
eclipse
食 literally means 'to eat'; the sun or moon is figured as being eaten during an eclipse.
- 焉 yān
final particle of assertion, closing the comparison
English closes the comparison with punctuation rather than a discrete word for this particle.
- 過 guò
fault, error
- 也 yě
particle marking the clause as conditional or temporal: when
- 人 rén
people, everyone (in general)
- 皆 jiē
all, every one
- 見 jiàn
to see, perceive, notice
- 之 zhī
object pronoun: it, referring to the fault
- 更 gēng
to change, amend, correct (one's fault)
更 is read gēng 'to change, amend' here, not gèng 'more, further'.
- 也 yě
particle marking the clause as conditional or temporal: when
- 人 rén
people, everyone (in general)
- 皆 jiē
all, every one
- 仰 yǎng
to look up to, admire, respect
- 之 zhī
object pronoun: him, referring to the gentleman
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