Book 5: 《公冶長》 Gong Ye Chang
《公冶長》 Passage 5.24
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Who says of Weishang Gao that he is upright? One begged some vinegar of him, and he begged it of a neighbor and gave it to the man."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master, one's teacher (respectful title, refers to Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 孰 shú
who, which one (interrogative pronoun)
- 謂 wèi
to say, claim, assert (that someone is thus)
- 微生高 wēi shēng gāo
Weisheng Gao, a man of Lu (personal name)
- 微 small, subtle, slight (here a syllable of a personal name)
- 生 life, to be born (here a syllable of a personal name)
- 高 tall, lofty (here a name syllable; also a common surname)
Transliteration spelling varies across translators (Weishang, Wei Shenggao, Wei-sheng Kao).
- 直 zhí
upright, honest in conduct
The passage tests whether concealing a borrowed favor as one's own still counts as zhi; translators split between the literal 'straight' and the moral 'honest/upright/true'.
- 或 huò
someone, a certain person
- 乞 qǐ
to beg, ask for
- 醯 xī
vinegar
Roberts alone reads 醯 as a mild fermented drink rather than vinegar proper.
- 焉 yān
from him, of him (fusion of 於 and a pronoun)
- 乞 qǐ
to beg, ask for
- 諸 zhū
it from, it off (fusion of 之 and 於)
- 其 qí
his, its (possessive pronoun)
- 鄰 lín
neighbor
- 而 ér
conjunctive particle: and, and then
- 與 yǔ
to give
- 之 zhī
him, it (referring to the original petitioner)
Slingerland's rendering ('present it as his own') has no explicit object phrase here, reflecting a divergent interpretation of the whole final clause.
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