Book 4: 《里仁》 Li Ren (Dwelling in Ren)
《里仁》 Passage 4.14
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "A man should say, 'I am not concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.'"Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius (honorific title)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 不 bù
negative particle: not
- 患 huàn
to worry about, be concerned about
- 無位 wú wèi
lack a position, be without an official post
- 無 to lack, be without, have no
- 位 position, official post, rank
- 患 huàn
to worry about, attend to, concern oneself with
- 所以立 suǒ yǐ lì
the means by which one is established, one's qualifications for standing
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, the means
- 以 instrumental particle: by means of, whereby
- 立 to be established, take one's stand, gain standing
所以 + verb is a fixed classical frame ('that by which one Vs'); 所 and 以 draw no renderings on their own and are folded into this unit with 立 rather than left as orphan particles.
- 不 bù
negative particle: not
- 患 huàn
to worry about, be concerned about
- 莫 mò
no one, nobody
- 己 jǐ
oneself, one's own person, as the one to be recognized
己 stands before 知 because a pronoun object moves in front of the verb after the negative 莫; 莫己知 is 莫知己, no one knows me
- 知 zhī
to be known, recognized
- 求 qiú
to seek, strive to
- 為可知也 wéi kě zhī yě
become worthy of being known, earn recognition
- 為 to be, become; copula linking to a resulting state
- 可 worthy of, able to be, -able
- 知 to know, recognize; here, to be known, be recognized
- 也 sentence-final particle marking declarative assertion
也 is a sentence-final assertive particle, not separately rendered by any translator.
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