Book 4: 《里仁》 Li Ren (Dwelling in Ren)
《里仁》 Passage 4.15
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Shen, my doctrine is that of an all-pervading unity."The disciple Zeng replied: "Yes."
The Master went out, and the other disciples asked, saying: "What do his words mean?"
Zeng said: "The doctrine of our master is to be true to the principles of our nature and the benevolent exercise of them to others, — this and nothing more."
Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius (respectful title)
- 曰 said
- 參乎 shēn hū
vocative address by personal name, with exclamatory particle
- 參 Shen, personal name of Confucius' disciple Zeng Shen (Zengzi)
- 乎 exclamatory/vocative final particle
參 is read shēn as Zeng Shen's given name, not cān; the Master addresses his disciple by 名, and 乎 is the vocative particle.
- 吾 wú
I, my
- 道 dào
the Way, one's guiding path or principle
- 一以貫之 yī yǐ guàn zhī
a single, unifying thread or principle running through everything
- 一 one, a single unifying thread or principle
- 以 instrumental particle: by means of, with
- 貫 to string through, run through, pervade
- 之 it, referring to the whole (object pronoun)
a fixed classical idiom (also at 15.3), using the metaphor of a thread or string that runs through and unifies everything
- 曾子 zēng zǐ
Master Zeng, the disciple Zeng Shen (surname 曾 with the honorific 子)
- 曾 Zeng, surname of the disciple Zeng Shen
- 子 master, honorific title for a teacher
- 曰 yuē
said, replied
- 唯 wéi
yes, an immediate assent without qualification
Zengzi's terse, unqualified 'yes' is traditionally read as a sign of immediate understanding, needing no further explanation
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius (respectful title)
- 出 chū
to go out, leave
- 門人 mén rén
disciples, followers
- 門 gate, doorway, used for a teacher's school or followers
- 人 person, people
- 問曰 wèn yuē
asked, said
- 問 to ask
- 曰 said
- 何謂也 hé wèi yě
what does this mean?, interrogative frame requesting clarification
- 何 what
- 謂 to mean, to refer to
- 也 sentence-final particle marking a question or assertion
- 曾子 zēng zǐ
Master Zeng, the disciple Zeng Shen (surname 曾 with the honorific 子)
- 曾 Zeng, surname of the disciple Zeng Shen
- 子 master, honorific title for a teacher
- 曰 yuē
said, replied
- 夫子 fū zǐ
the Master, Confucius (respectful title for a teacher)
- 夫 demonstrative pronoun: that, that one
- 子 master, honorific title for a teacher
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: 's, of
- 道 dào
the Way, guiding principle or path
Roberts loosens this to 'ideal' and Slingerland verbalizes it as 'teaches', both departing from the literal 'Way'
- 忠 zhōng
loyalty, doing one's utmost for others
Chin distinctively ties zhong to fulfilling one's own humanity (ren), where other translators frame it as loyalty or duty
- 恕 shù
reciprocity, treating others as one would treat oneself
elsewhere in the Analects (15.24) shu is glossed as not imposing on others what one does not desire for oneself
- 而已矣 ér yǐ yǐ
that is all, nothing more, marking finality
- 而 first element of the restrictive particle 而已, that is all; joins no clauses here
- 已 to stop, be finished, or, in context, only, merely
- 矣 final particle marking completion or emphatic assertion
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