Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.4
Legge Translation (1861)
There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism.Word by word
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius
- 絕 jué
entirely free of, cut off from
Roberts and Lau frame this as active refusal/warning rather than simple freedom from a trait.
- 四 sì
four
- 毋 wú
negative particle: not, without
毋 here is equivalent to 無, 'without', not the prohibitive 'do not'; 朱熹 notes that 史記 writes 無. Roberts and Watson nonetheless read the four as prohibitions.
- 意 yì
conjecture, arbitrary speculation
translators split between reading yi as groundless conjecture and as a fixed, preconceived opinion.
- 毋 wú
negative particle: not, without
- 必 bì
dogmatic certainty, insistence on being right
- 毋 wú
negative particle: not, without
- 固 gù
obstinacy, rigid inflexibility
- 毋 wú
negative particle: not, without
- 我 wǒ
egotism, self-centeredness
Roberts reads wo as bias favoring one's own in-group rather than simple self-centeredness.
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