Book 4: 《里仁》 Li Ren (Dwelling in Ren)
《里仁》 Passage 4.22
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "The reason why the ancients did not readily give utterance to their words, was that they feared lest their actions should not come up to them."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 master, teacher; here refers to Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke; introduces a quotation
- 古者 gǔ zhě
the ancients, people of former times
- 古 ancient, of former times
- 者 particle after a time word (古者, 昔者) marking a temporal setting: in ancient times; also read as the nominaliser, the ancients
- 言 yán
words, speech, what is said
- 之不出 zhī bù chū
were reluctant to speak, did not let words come out readily
- 之 grammatical particle marking the preceding word as subject of a clause
- 不 not, negation particle
- 出 to come out, emerge; to be uttered
之 nominalizes the negated predicate 不出 ('did not come out') as the topic of the sentence.
- 恥 chǐ
to be ashamed of, consider shameful
Legge renders 恥 as 'feared' rather than 'ashamed'; the other seven translators read it as shame.
- 躬 gōng
one's own conduct, actions, person
躬 literally means 'body, person'; here it denotes one's own conduct as distinct from one's words.
- 之不逮也 zhī bù dài yě
failed to reach, did not measure up to, fell short
- 之 grammatical particle marking the preceding word as subject of a clause
- 不 not, negation particle
- 逮 to reach, catch up to, measure up to
- 也 final particle marking assertion or explanation
之 nominalizes 躬不逮 ('conduct does not reach up to it') as the object of 恥; 也 marks the clause as an explanatory assertion. Neither is separately rendered.
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