Book 2: 《為政》 Wei Zheng (Governance)
《為政》 Passage 2.6
Legge Translation (1861)
Meng Wubo asked what filial piety was. The Master said: "Parents are anxious lest their children should be sick."Word by word
- 孟武伯 mèng wǔ bó
personal name: Meng Wubo
- 孟 surname/clan name Meng
- 武 Wu, his posthumous title (martial); his given name was 彘
- 伯 name element Bo, a rank term for an eldest son
son of the Lu minister Meng Yizi; romanized variously as Meng Wu Po / Meng Wu Bo by different translators
- 問 wèn
to ask about, inquire about
- 孝 xiào
filial piety, devotion to one's parents
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius
- 曰 said
- 父母 fù mǔ
parents, father and mother
- 父 father
- 母 mother
- 唯…之 wéi … zhī
only, nothing but, no exception except
- 唯 only, nothing but
- 之 grammatical particle linking a fronted object to the following verb
唯...之 is a restrictive focus construction ('only X'); 之 itself links the fronted object 其疾 to the verb 憂 and has no independent rendering in any translation
- 其 qí
your, the child's own (illness); on a minority reading the parents' own
The crux of the passage. 馬融, 朱熹, 楊伯峻 and 錢穆 take 其 as the child's own illness, the one thing a parent should have to worry about, as do Legge, Ames & Rosemont, Watson and Chin; 王充 took it as the parents' illness, the one thing a child should worry about, and Peimin Ni follows him. Watson prints both readings.
- 疾 jí
illness, sickness, falling ill
- 憂 yōu
to worry about, be anxious about
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