Book 6: 《雍也》 Yong Ye (As for Yong)
《雍也》 Passage 6.27
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "The superior man, extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, may thus likewise not overstep what is right."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master (Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 君子 jūn zǐ
gentleman, exemplary person of noble character
- 君 lord, ruler; 君子 is literally a lord's son
- 子 son; 君子 is literally a lord's son, one of the ruling class, which the Analects makes a term of character
- 博學 bó xué
to study broadly, be widely learned
- 博 wide, broad, extensive
- 學 to study, learn
- 於 yú
coverb marking the object of a verb: in, with regard to
- 文 wén
culture, the refined arts, literature, learning
Roberts reads 文 narrowly as the classical canon rather than culture in general; the rest take the broader sense.
- 約 yuē
to restrain, discipline, bring under control
- 之 zhī
third-person object pronoun: him, it, himself
refers back to the gentleman himself, or to the learning just described.
- 以 yǐ
coverb marking means or instrument: by, through, with
- 禮 lǐ
ritual, the rites, propriety
- 亦 yì
also, likewise, moreover
- 可 kě
can, may, to be able to
- 以 yǐ
auxiliary particle marking ability/permission, fused into the modal sense of 可
- 弗 fú
not (negative particle)
- 畔 pàn
to stray, go astray from the right path
畔 is read here as a loan for 叛 (turn against, rebel) or as boundary extended to overstepping bounds; translators split between passive straying and active turning against.
- 矣夫 yǐ fú
final particles marking assertive, rhetorical emphasis: surely, indeed
- 矣 final particle marking assertion or completed state
- 夫 final particle expressing exclamatory or rhetorical emphasis
only Lau and Watson supply an explicit equivalent; the rest let sentence-final position and punctuation alone carry the particles' rhetorical force.
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