Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.15
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "I returned from Wey to Lu, and then the music was reformed, and the pieces in the Royal songs and Praise songs all found their proper places."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master (Confucius)
- 曰 said, spoke
- 吾 wú
I, me
Some translators nominalize the clause ('my return') rather than keep it a finite verb ('I returned'), shifting the same first-person pronoun from subject to possessive.
- 自 zì
from, out of
- 衛 wèi
Wey, name of a state
- 反 fǎn
to return, go back
- 魯 lǔ
Lu, name of a state
- 然後 rán hòu
after that, only then
- 然 so, thus; here signaling sequence: after that, thereupon
- 後 after, behind; here: afterward, subsequently
- 樂 yuè
music
Ames & Rosemont and Roberts treat 樂 as a specific institution or text (the Book of Music, the official court music) rather than music in general.
- 正 zhèng
to be rectified, corrected, put right
- 雅 yǎ
Ya, a category of the Book of Odes (court hymns)
雅 and 頌 are two of the three traditional categories of the Book of Odes (the third is 風); translators either transliterate the name or translate its sense (court songs, classic songs, Songs of the Kingdom).
- 頌 sòng
Song, a category of the Book of Odes (eulogies, hymns)
- 各 gè
each, respectively
- 得 dé
to obtain, be placed, be put in position
- 其 qí
its, their
- 所 suǒ
place, station
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