Book 5: 《公冶長》 Gong Ye Chang
《公冶長》 Passage 5.23
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Bo Yi and Shu Qi did not keep the former wickednesses of men in mind, and hence the resentments directed towards them were few."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 master, honorific title (here, Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke; introduces a direct quotation
- 伯夷 bó yí
Bo Yi, legendary prince who starved rather than serve an illegitimate ruler
- 伯 eldest; first character of the personal name Bo Yi
- 夷 second character of the personal name Bo Yi
- 叔齊 shū qí
Shu Qi, younger brother of Bo Yi who starved alongside him in protest
- 叔 younger brother; first character of the name Shu Qi
- 齊 second character of the personal name Shu Qi
- 不念 bù niàn
did not dwell on, did not bear in mind
- 不 not; negates the verb that follows
- 念 to dwell on, bear in mind, harbor (a grievance)
- 舊惡 jiù è
old grudges, past wrongs
- 舊 old, former
- 惡 wrongdoing, a wrong, an offense — read è, not wù ('to hate'): a noun meaning a wrong or misdeed here
- 怨 yuàn
resentment, ill will
Whose resentment is not marked: 朱熹 (人亦不甚怨之) takes it as others' resentment toward the brothers, as do Legge, Slingerland, Peimin Ni, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont and Lau; Watson and Chin read it as the brothers' own.
- 是用 shì yòng
therefore, for this reason
- 是 demonstrative: this; functions adverbially as 'thus, therefore'
- 用 to use; here functions adverbially as 'therefore, thereby'
是用 is a fixed classical connective equivalent to 是以, meaning 'therefore'
- 希 xī
rare, few, scanty
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