《八佾》 Passage 3.24

Yi, name of a border town

border warden, frontier official

• 封 border, frontier boundary
• 人 person; here, an official stationed at a border post

to request an audience, ask to be received

• 請 to request, ask for
• 見 to be received in audience, granted an interview — read jiàn, to be received in audience; the causative xiàn is the 見 of 從者見之 below

said, spoke (introduces quoted speech)

gentleman, person of noble character and standing

• 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

topicalizing frame marking a temporal or circumstantial clause: when...

• 之 subordinating particle linking a clause's subject to its predicate
• 也 final particle marking a pause after a topicalized clause

之…也 nominalizes and sets off the preceding clause as a topic, functioning much like 'when...'

to arrive at this place, come here

• 至 to arrive, reach
• 於 preposition: at, to
• 斯 this, this place, here

I, me

never failed to, always (emphatic double negative)

• 未 not yet
• 嘗 ever, at some time (marking prior experience)
• 不 not

literally 'never not,' a double negative that yields a strong affirmation

to succeed in obtaining an audience, be received

• 得 to manage to, be able to, get to
• 見 to see, meet
• 也 final particle of assertion, emphasizing certainty

followers, attendants, disciples in attendance

• 從 to follow, accompany
• 者 nominalizing particle: one who, those who

to present him, grant him an audience

• 見 to present someone to be received in audience — causative reading: to cause another to be seen/received, not simply 'to see'
• 之 third-person object pronoun: him

to go out, emerge (from the audience)

said, spoke

you, my friends (collective address to a group of disciples)

• 二 two
• 三 three
• 子 you, sir (respectful term of address)

idiomatic address, literally 'you two-three,' i.e. 'you several'

rhetorical interrogative frame: why worry about...?

• 何 what, why, how
• 患 to worry about, be distressed by
• 乎 interrogative final particle

about the loss (of office or position)

• 於 preposition: about, over
• 喪 loss; here, loss of office or position

喪 is read sàng, loss, not sāng, mourning: 孔安國 glosses it as loss of office (喪，謂失位).

all under heaven, the world

• 天 heaven, Heaven
• 下 below, under
• 之 possessive/subordinating particle: 's, of

to lack the Way, be without proper moral-political order

• 無 to lack, be without
• 道 the Way, proper moral and political order
• 也 final particle marking assertion or topic completion

for a long time now (emphasizing a long-standing state)

• 久 long, for a long time
• 矣 perfective final particle: marks a state that has come to be so

Heaven (as an agent directing human affairs)

about to, going to (marks imminent action)

fixed construction: to use, take X as Y

• 以 to use, take (introduces the means or material of an action)
• 為 to serve as, act as, be

the Master (respectful title for Confucius)

• 夫 honorific prefix marking a respectful title for a mature man
• 子 master, teacher; honorific term for a cultivated man

wooden-tongued bell used by heralds to proclaim edicts

• 木 wood, wooden
• 鐸 a large bell with a swinging clapper, rung to proclaim announcements

the striking image closing the passage: Heaven will use Confucius as its herald-bell to announce the Way