《泰伯》 Passage 8.11

the Master said

• 子 the Master, i.e. Confucius
• 曰 said, spoke

though, although, granting that (concessive)

Legge, Roberts, Lau, Watson and Chin read 如 as concessive ('though/although/despite'); Slingerland, Peimin Ni and Ames & Rosemont read it as a plain conditional ('if').

to have, possess

Duke of Zhou, regent of the early Zhou dynasty and model of talent and virtue

• 周 Zhou, the dynasty name (in the title Duke of Zhou)
• 公 duke, a noble title

possessive/genitive particle: 's, of

talent, ability

genitive particle linking 才 to the following 美: 's, of

English fuses talent and fineness directly into an adjective-noun phrase ('fine talents') rather than a nested genitive ('the fineness of the talent').

fine, admirable, excellent

supposing, granting that (conditional)

使 here is a second conditional marker paired with 如 ('if... then, supposing...'), not the causative 'to make, cause' sense; Slingerland, Peimin Ni and Ames & Rosemont fold it silently into the following clause.

arrogant, haughty

and, moreover (coordinating conjunction linking two qualities)

stingy, mean, miserly

his, its (possessive pronoun)

the rest, remainder

not enough to, not worth

• 不 not
• 足 enough, sufficient to; worth doing

to notice, admire, regard highly

sentence-final particles of strong assertion: 'that is all'

• 也 sentence-final particle of assertion
• 已 sentence-final particle reinforcing assertion: that's all