Book 3: 《八佾》 Ba Yi (Eight Rows)
《八佾》 Passage 3.7
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "The student of virtue has no contentions. If it be said he cannot avoid them, shall this be in archery? But he bows complaisantly to his competitors; thus he ascends the hall, descends, and exacts the forfeit of drinking. In his contention, he is still the junzi."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 honorific title: Master (i.e., Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 君子 jūn zǐ
exemplary person, gentleman
- 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
Legge and Roberts render junzi distinctively, as 'the student of virtue' and 'true princes'
- 無所爭 wú suǒ zhēng
has nothing to contend over, does not compete
- 無 not, there is no; negates existence of something
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, what
- 爭 to contend, compete, strive over something
- 必也…乎 bì yě … hū
if there must be one exception, surely it would be...!, rhetorical frame naming the sole exception
- 必 necessarily, if there must be one
- 也 emphatic particle reinforcing an assertion
- 乎 interrogative or exclamatory final particle
- 射 shè
archery, the archery contest/ceremony
- 揖讓 yī ràng
to bow and yield precedence to one another, ritual courtesy
- 揖 to bow, salute with hands joined
- 讓 to yield, defer, give way
- 而 ér
conjunctive particle marking sequence: and then, as
- 升 shēng
to ascend, go up (the hall/steps)
- 下 xià
to descend, come down (from the hall/steps)
- 而 ér
conjunctive particle marking sequence: and then, afterward
- 飲 yǐn
to drink a ceremonial toast
In the 鄉射禮 the losers drink a forfeit cup; 朱熹 reads 下而飲 as the winners escorting the losers up to drink it (勝者乃揖不勝者升，取觶立飲), hence Legge's 'exacts the forfeit of drinking'. Most translators soften it to a shared toast.
- 其 qí
their
- 爭 zhēng
contention, competing, striving
- 也 yě
particle marking a pause after the topic 其爭 before the comment 君子: as for their contending
- 君子 jūn zǐ
exemplary person, gentleman
- 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
here often rendered adjectivally as 'princely' or 'gentlemanly' rather than as a noun
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