Book 2: 《為政》 Wei Zheng (Governance)
《為政》 Passage 2.7
Legge Translation (1861)
Ziyou asked what filial piety was. The Master said: "The filial piety of now-a-days means the support of one's parents. But dogs and horses likewise are able to do something in the way of support; — without reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support given from the other?"Word by word
- 子游 zǐ yóu
Ziyou, a disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 游 personal-name element in Ziyou, a disciple of Confucius
Lau uses the Wade-Giles romanization Tzu-yu for the same disciple (Yan Yan).
- 問孝 wèn xiào
to ask about being filial, inquire about filial piety
- 問 to ask about, inquire about
- 孝 being filial, filial piety toward one's parents
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 今 jīn
nowadays, in the present day
- 之…者 zhī … zhě
genitive-nominalizing frame: that which is..., those who are...
- 之 genitive/attributive particle: 's, of
- 者 nominalizing particle: that which, those who
之 links 今 to the nominalized clause; 者 turns 孝 into 'the filial one(s)' or 'what counts as filial'. Most translators fuse this into an abstract noun and give no discrete token for it.
- 孝 xiào
filial, being filial
Roberts, Watson, and Chin restructure the sentence and do not repeat the word 'filial' here.
- 是謂 shì wèi
this is called, this means, this refers to
- 是 demonstrative pronoun: this, resuming the preceding topic
- 謂 to call, mean, refer to
- 能養 néng yǎng
to be able to provide nourishment, to feed and support one's parents
- 能 to be able to, can
- 養 to feed, nourish, provide material support for
- 至於 zhì yú
as for, when it comes to
- 至 reaching to, extending to
- 於 preposition marking extent or reference: to, at, regarding
- 犬馬 quǎn mǎ
dogs and horses
- 犬 dog
- 馬 horse
- 皆 jiē
all, likewise
- 能有養 néng yǒu yǎng
are also able to be provided with support, receive care as well
- 能 to be able to, can
- 有 to have, receive, be provided with
- 養 support, nourishment, feeding
Two readings. 朱熹 (and most translators) take dogs and horses as themselves fed by people, so that feeding alone does not distinguish a parent from an animal; 包咸 in 何晏's 集解 takes them as able to serve people, the dog by guarding and the horse by labouring, and Legge and Chin follow him.
- 不 bù
not
- 敬 jìng
reverence, genuine respect
The passage's hinge term: 敬 marks the qualitative difference between merely feeding one's parents and truly honoring them, since even dogs and horses are fed.
- 何以…乎 hé yǐ … hū
how...?, what...?, interrogative frame asking for a distinguishing basis
- 何 what, how
- 以 by means of, with what
- 乎 interrogative final particle
- 別 bié
to distinguish, differentiate, tell apart
A text file for Anki 2.1.55 or later: File → Import. The cards go to the deck “Analects”, tagged by passage, and importing again updates them instead of adding copies.
Discussion
No one has started on this passage yet.
Start the discussion in r/analects