Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.20
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Never flagging when I set forth anything to him; — ah! that is Hui."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 master; honorific title for Confucius
- 曰 said, spoke
- 語 yù
to tell, speak to someone
- 之 zhī
object pronoun: him
- 而 ér
coordinating conjunction: and
- 不惰 bù duò
not idle, unwearying, remains attentive without flagging
- 不 not
- 惰 idle, negligent in what one is taught
Most translators take 惰 as the listener never growing weary or inattentive; Roberts (following a rival traditional reading) takes it as never being remiss in carrying the teaching into action.
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: the one who, he who
- 其…也與 qí … yě yú
assertive frame expressing confident surmise: surely it must be...!
- 其 modal adverb expressing surmise: surely, must be
- 也 sentence-final particle of assertion
- 與 final particle marking a rhetorical question or exclamation
也與 (也歟) marks a rhetorical question or a confident exclamation; translators render it either as a tag question ("wasn't it?") or as an assertive adverb ("surely", "I suppose").
- 回 huí
Hui, given name of the disciple Yan Hui
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