Book 7: 《述而》 Shu Er (Transmission)
《述而》 Passage 7.20
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 master, honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 我 wǒ
I, me
- 非 fēi
not, it is not the case that
- 生 shēng
born, by nature from birth
- 而 ér
connective particle linking sequential events: and, and then
- 知 zhī
to know, have knowledge of
- 之 zhī
it, that (object pronoun referring to knowledge)
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: one who, the kind of person who
- 好古…者 hào gǔ … zhě
one who loves antiquity, a devotee of the ancient ways
- 好 to love, be fond of
- 古 antiquity, the ancient past
- 者 nominalizing particle: one who, the kind of person who
者 nominalizes the coordinated predicate 好古敏以求之 ('loving antiquity, diligently seeking it') into 'one who does this'; only Legge and Watson keep an explicit nominalizer, the rest render it as a plain descriptive clause.
- 敏 mǐn
diligent, quick to apply effort
- 以 yǐ
coverb linking manner to the verb: by means of, in doing so
- 求 qiú
to seek, search for
- 之 zhī
it, that (referring back to antiquity, the thing sought)
- 也 yě
final particle of assertion
English closes the sentence with a period rather than a word; the affirmation 也 marks is carried by declarative sentence structure alone.
A text file for Anki 2.1.55 or later: File → Import. The cards go to the deck “Analects”, tagged by passage, and importing again updates them instead of adding copies.
Discussion
No one has started on this passage yet.
Start the discussion in r/analects