Book 7: 《述而》 Shu Er (Transmission)
《述而》 Passage 7.29
Legge Translation (1861)
It was difficult to talk (profitably and reputably) with the people of Hu-xiang, and a lad of that place having had an interview with the Master, the disciples doubted.The Master said: "I admit people's approach to me without committing myself as to what they may do when they have retired. Why must one be so severe? If a man purify himself to wait upon me, I receive him so purified, without guaranteeing his past conduct."
Word by word
- 互鄉 hù xiāng
Hu Village, Hu Xiang (place name)
- 互 Hu (place-name element in 互鄉, Hu Village)
- 鄉 village, district
- 難 nán
difficult, hard to do
- 與 yǔ
with, to (coverb introducing the addressee)
contrast with 與 later in the passage (indices 18, 24, 39), where it is a verb 'to approve of'
- 言 yán
to speak, talk
- 童子 tóng zǐ
boy, young lad
- 童 young, a child
- 子 child, young person
- 見 xiàn
to be received in audience, granted an interview
read xiàn (經典釋文: 賢遍反): the boy was presented and received in audience, not that he saw the Master.
- 門人 mén rén
disciples, followers
- 門 gate, door
- 人 person, people
- 惑 huò
perplexed, in doubt, uncertain how to respond
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 Master (title referring to Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 與 yǔ
to approve of, sanction, accept
translators diverge structurally on this clause: some generalize the subject to 'people' (Legge, Peimin Ni), others keep it to the boy, and Watson recasts the verb entirely as 'concern'
- 其 qí
his, him (the boy)
- 進 jìn
to advance, come forward, present oneself
- 也 yě
particle marking a topicalized or nominalized clause
- 不與 bù yǔ
to withhold commitment about, not vouch for; not approve
- 不 not
- 與 to approve of, sanction, be favorably disposed toward
the negated verb resists clean word-by-word separation in English; several translators fuse or paraphrase the negation and verb together
- 其 qí
his, their — referent disputed: the boy, or people in general
- 退 tuì
to retreat, withdraw, leave
- 也 yě
particle marking a topicalized or nominalized clause
- 唯 wéi
emphatic particle introducing a rhetorical exclamation
no translator supplies a separate English word for it
- 何 hé
what, why, how (interrogative)
- 甚 shèn
extreme, excessive, going too far
translators split between reading 甚 as excessive strictness (severe, extreme, exacting) and as simple wrongness (Watson's 'wrong', Chin's 'a problem'), reflecting real disagreement about what exactly is being judged
- 人 rén
a person, someone, one
- 潔己 jié jǐ
to purify oneself, cleanse oneself in preparation
- 潔 to purify, cleanse oneself
- 己 oneself, himself
- 以 yǐ
in order to, so as to
- 進 jìn
to advance, come forward, present oneself
- 與 yǔ
to approve of, accept
- 其 qí
his (the boy's, referring to his purification)
- 潔 jié
purity, purification
- 也 yě
particle marking a topicalized or nominalized clause
- 不保 bù bǎo
not vouch for, not guarantee, not be answerable for
- 不 not
- 保 to vouch for, guarantee, be answerable for
- 其 qí
his (the boy's, referring to his past)
- 往 wǎng
the past, prior conduct
most translators read 往 as 'the past,' but Roberts and Ames read it as forward-looking ('future', 'where he is going'), and Slingerland paraphrases it the same way; the line is considered textually difficult
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
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