《八佾》 Passage 3.1

Confucius, Master Kong

• 孔 surname Kong
• 子 honorific title: master, teacher

said of, remarked concerning

the Ji clan, a hereditary ministerial family of Lu

• 季 Ji, surname of a powerful ministerial family of Lu
• 氏 clan, lineage name suffix

eight rows of ritual dancers

• 八 eight
• 佾 row of dancers in a ritual dance formation

The number of rows of dancers was fixed by rank; eight rows was reserved for the Zhou king, so the Ji using it was a ritual transgression.

to dance, perform

in, at

courtyard, the open court before the hall of the ancestral temple

this, demonstrative pronoun

can be endured, tolerated

• 可 can, may be done
• 忍 to endure, tolerate, bear with

忍 is read two ways. 朱熹, 楊伯峻 and 錢穆 take it as 忍心, to have the heart to do: if the Ji can bring themselves to do this, what would they not do (Legge follows). 何晏's line and most translators take it as 容忍, to tolerate: if this can be tolerated, what cannot.

correlative particles linking two parallel clauses as an implicit 'if...then'

• 也 particle marking a pause before the parallel comment clause
• 也 final particle marking a rhetorical question

Neither 也 is itself conditional; the 'if...then' reading arises from the juxtaposition of the two parallel yě-clauses, a standard classical construction.

what, which one

cannot be endured, intolerable

• 不 not
• 可 can, may be done
• 忍 to endure, tolerate, bear with

Rhetorical question expecting the answer 'nothing' — if this is tolerable, nothing is off-limits.