Book 5: 《公冶長》 Gong Ye Chang
《公冶長》 Passage 5.28
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "In a hamlet of ten families, there may be found one honorable and sincere as I am, but not so fond of learning."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, honorific title (here referring to Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke (introduces a direct quotation)
- 十 shí
ten
- 室 shì
household, family unit
- 之 zhī
attributive particle: of, linking a modifying phrase to the noun it qualifies
- 邑 yì
hamlet, small settlement, village
- 必有 bì yǒu
there must surely be, there is certain to exist
- 必 surely, certainly, bound to (marks strong necessity)
- 有 there is, there exists (existential verb)
- 忠 zhōng
loyal, devoted, doing one's utmost for others
Legge's 'honorable' is an outlier; the other seven converge on the doing-one's-utmost sense.
- 信 xìn
trustworthy, true to one's word
- 如 rú
as, like, equal to (introduces a standard of comparison)
- 丘 qiū
Qiu, Confucius's given name, used in self-reference
Confucius names himself; all but Roberts render this with the first-person pronoun rather than the transliterated name.
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: one who, those who, someone who
- 焉 yān
in it, among them (fusion of 於 and a pronoun, closing the existential clause)
- 不如 bù rú
not as good as, inferior to
- 不 not (negates the comparison that follows)
- 如 as good as, equal to (paired with a preceding negative)
- 丘 qiū
Qiu, Confucius's given name, used again in self-reference
- 之 zhī
possessive particle: 's, of
- 好學 hào xué
love of learning, devotion to study
- 好 to love, be fond of, take pleasure in
- 學 learning, study
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
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