Book 6: 《雍也》 Yong Ye (As for Yong)
《雍也》 Passage 6.29
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Constant Mean! Rare for a long time has been its practice among the people."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master (Confucius), a term of respect for a teacher
- 曰 said, spoke
- 中庸 zhōng yōng
the Mean, constantly hitting the balanced center (a key ethical ideal)
- 中 the mean, the balanced center
- 庸 constant, ordinary; consistently applied
also the name of a Confucian classic, the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean)
- 之 zhī
subordinating particle: 's, of
- 為 wéi
copula: to be, to constitute
translators split between a static copula reading ('is a virtue') and a dynamic verb reading ('to attain/practice virtue')
- 德 dé
virtue, moral power
Ames & Rosemont renders 德 as 'excellence' rather than 'virtue'
- 也 yě
topic-marking final particle, pause after a subordinate clause
- 其 qí
modal particle in the frame 其…乎: surely, indeed
- 至 zhì
utmost, supreme, the highest degree
- 矣乎 yǐ hū
emphatic assertive particle cluster: indeed, truly
- 矣 perfective final particle marking emphatic assertion
- 乎 exclamatory or interrogative final particle
Lau's 'indeed' keeps the exclamatory reading; Slingerland, Roberts, and Chin instead render the clause as a rhetorical question.
- 民 mín
the people, the common folk
- 鮮 xiǎn
rare, scarce, few
Read xiǎn, 'few, rare' (朱熹: 鮮, 上聲), not xiān.
- 久矣 jiǔ yǐ
for a long time already, marking a long-standing state
- 久 a long time, for long
- 矣 perfective final particle marking a long-standing state: already, now
Ames & Rosemont's 'an old story' and Chin's 'now' reflect 矣's evidential force (a long-held, well-known state), beyond the plain duration carried by 久
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