《為政》 Passage 2.2

the Master said

• 子 master, teacher: honorific title for Confucius
• 曰 to say, said (introduces Confucius's spoken words)

the Odes, the Book of Poetry, the Songs: the anthology of ancient verse

three hundred: the traditional count of odes in the collection

• 三 three
• 百 hundred

a single phrase, one saying: the summarizing dictum that follows

• 一 one
• 言 word, phrase, saying

by means of...it: instrumental frame marking the means and resuming the object

• 以 by means of, using: marks the instrument or means of an action
• 之 it, them: third-person object pronoun

to sum up, cover, encompass

the quoted line (Ode 297, 駉): no swerving, or no depraved thoughts

• 曰 to say: introduces the quoted maxim that follows
• 思 verse particle from the Ode's refrain, sometimes read as 'to think' — Legge, Watson and Roberts read it as 'thought'; Peimin Ni and Slingerland print it as the ode's exclamatory filler ('Oh'), the reading 劉寶楠 and 楊伯峻 give for the ode itself, though 楊伯峻 thinks Confucius took it as 'thought' when he quoted it.
• 無 not, without, no
• 邪 evil, depraved, deviant, wrong — Several translators read this as 'swerve, deviate' instead, giving a directional rather than moral sense to the phrase.

思無邪 quotes Ode 297 (駉); translators split between a directional reading ('do not swerve from the path,' closer to the ode's original context describing horses) and a moral reading ('no depraved thoughts,' about the mind).