Book 8: 《泰伯》 Tai Bo
《泰伯》 Passage 8.16
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Ardent and yet not upright; stupid and yet not attentive; simple and yet not sincere: — such persons I do not understand."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 master; honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 狂 kuáng
wild, unrestrained, impetuous
Lau reads this as active rejection of discipline rather than as a personality trait; the other translators treat it as unchecked ardor or zeal.
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: and yet, but
- 不 bù
not
- 直 zhí
upright, straightforward
Ames & Rosemont's 'discipline' is an outlier reading; the consensus takes this as personal integrity in speech and conduct.
- 侗 tóng
ignorant, unrefined, naive
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: and yet, but
- 不 bù
not
- 愿 yuàn
honest, sincere
translators split between an honesty-type reading (Slingerland, Peimin Ni, Chin) and a caution-type reading (Ames & Rosemont, Lau); Roberts's 'recalcitrant' and Legge's 'attentive' are outliers.
- 悾悾 kōng kōng
guileless, naive, simple-minded
- 悾 guileless, naive, simple-minded
- 悾 guileless, naive, simple-minded
包咸 glosses 悾悾 as 慤, sincere and simple, the reading most translators follow; 朱熹 glosses it 無能貌, the look of one without ability, which Lau's 'devoid of ability' follows.
- 而 ér
contrastive conjunction: and yet, but
- 不 bù
not
- 信 xìn
trustworthy, reliable
- 吾 wú
I, me
- 不 bù
not
- 知 zhī
to understand, comprehend
- 之 zhī
third-person object pronoun: them, referring to the people just described
- 矣 yǐ
final particle of assertion
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