Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.25
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master said: "Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."Word by word
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 master, teacher; title for Confucius
- 曰 to say, said
- 主 zhǔ
to hold as one's guiding principle, make central, prioritize
Roberts recasts 主 as a predicate ('these are the main thing') and Chin as 'stay close to,' associating with virtuous people rather than holding the virtues oneself; the shared core is making commitment and trustworthiness primary.
- 忠信 zhōng xìn
loyalty and trustworthiness, doing one's utmost for others and keeping one's word
- 忠 loyalty, doing one's utmost for others
- 信 trustworthiness, being true to one's word
- 毋 wú
negative imperative: do not, there is to be no
- 友 yǒu
to befriend, take as a friend
Legge and Watson nominalize this as 'friends' rather than using a verb, but the same relation-forming sense underlies both readings.
- 不如 bù rú
not as good as, inferior to
- 不 not
- 如 to be equal to, be like
- 己 jǐ
oneself, one's own self
- 者 zhě
nominalizing particle: one who, those who
- 過 guò
a fault, transgression, mistake, to err
- 則 zé
conditional conjunction: when, if
- 勿 wù
prohibitive negative: do not, must not
- 憚 dàn
to dread, fear, shrink from
- 改 gǎi
to change, correct, amend
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