Book 6: 《雍也》 Yong Ye (As for Yong)
《雍也》 Passage 6.24
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Qi, by one change, would come to the State of Lu. Lu, by one change, would come to a State where true principles predominated."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke (introducing a quotation)
- 齊 qí
Qi, name of a state
- 一 yī
one, a single instance
- 變 biàn
change, transformation
Roberts casts the change politically as 'reform'; Ames & Rosemont and Lau render 一變 idiomatically as 'one turn'/'at one stroke', still a single transformation.
- 至於 zhì yú
to reach, attain to
- 至 to arrive at, reach
- 於 coverb marking destination: to, at
至於 pairs the verb 'reach' with a destination coverb; translators split between literal attainment (Legge, Roberts) and figurative equivalence (become, resemble, measure up to).
- 魯 lǔ
Lu, name of a state
- 魯 lǔ
Lu, name of a state
- 一 yī
one, a single instance
Roberts drops the numeral in the second clause, writing only 'a great reform' with no explicit 'one'.
- 變 biàn
change, transformation
Roberts casts the change politically as 'reform'; Ames & Rosemont and Lau render 一變 idiomatically as 'one turn'/'at one stroke', still a single transformation.
- 至於 zhì yú
to reach, attain to
- 至 to arrive at, reach
- 於 coverb marking destination: to, at
至於 pairs the verb 'reach' with a destination coverb; translators split between literal attainment (Legge, Roberts) and figurative equivalence (become, resemble, measure up to).
- 道 dào
the Way, the ideal moral and political order
Legge paraphrases dao as 'true principles' rather than naming it the Way; Roberts glosses it specifically as the Way of good government.
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