Book 6: 《雍也》 Yong Ye (As for Yong)
《雍也》 Passage 6.28
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master having visited Nanzi, Zilu was displeased, on which the Master swore, saying: "Wherein I have done improperly, may Heaven reject me, may Heaven reject me!"Word by word
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius
- 見 jiàn
to see, visit
Roberts recasts the clause as passive, making Nanzi the agent who receives Confucius
- 南子 nán zǐ
Nanzi, wife of Duke Ling of Wey
- 南 name element in Nanzi (南子), wife of Duke Ling of Wey
- 子 name element in Nanzi (南子)
- 子路 zǐ lù
Zilu, disciple of Confucius
- 子 prefix of a courtesy name, as in 子路 and 子貢; not the title Master
- 路 name element in Zilu (子路)
- 不 bù
not
Legge, Peimin Ni and Lau fuse the negation into 'displeased'; Roberts uses the unrelated word 'distressed'
- 說 yuè
pleased, happy, delighted
loangraph for 悅
- 夫子 fū zǐ
the Master (Confucius)
- 夫 honorific element in 夫子, 'the Master' (Confucius)
- 子 honorific element in 夫子, 'the Master' (Confucius)
- 矢 shǐ
to swear, take an oath
- 之 zhī
him, referring to Zilu
only Ames & Rosemont and Chin make it explicit.
- 曰 yuē
verb introducing direct speech: said, saying
- 予 yú
I, me
- 所…者 suǒ … zhě
oath formula: if I have..., should I have...
- 所 nominalizing particle: that which, what
- 者 nominalizing particle: the thing that, that which
In oaths 所…者 is a conditional formula, 'if I have...' (朱熹: 所, 誓辭也), as in the Zuozhuan oath 所不與舅氏同心者，有如白水; Legge alone keeps a literal 'wherein'.
- 否 fǒu
wrong, improper
read here as 'wrong, improper conduct', not the ordinary negative 'no, not'
- 天 tiān
Heaven, the supreme moral-cosmic power
- 厭 yàn
reject, abandon, forsake
originally 'to detest, be sated with'; translators split between Heaven rejecting Confucius and Heaven punishing him
- 之 zhī
me (object pronoun)
- 天 tiān
Heaven, the supreme moral-cosmic power
- 厭 yàn
reject, abandon, forsake
originally 'to detest, be sated with'; translators split between Heaven rejecting Confucius and Heaven punishing him
- 之 zhī
me (object pronoun)
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