Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.14
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master was wishing to go and live among the nine wild tribes of the east. Some one said: "They are rude. How can you do such a thing?"The Master said: "If a superior man dwelt among them, what rudeness would there be?"
Word by word
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius
- 欲 yù
wanted, wished, desired to
- 居 jū
to live, dwell, settle
- 九夷 jiǔ yí
the Nine Yi, the eastern barbarian tribes
- 九 nine
- 夷 Yi peoples, eastern non-Chinese tribes
Roberts drops the numeral 'nine' and translates 夷 descriptively as 'uncultured' rather than as the ethnonym Yi.
- 或曰 huò yuē
someone said, asked
- 或 someone, some person (indefinite pronoun)
- 曰 said
- 陋 lòu
crude, uncivilized, backward
- 如之何 rú zhī hé
what to do about it, how to deal with it
- 如 how, in what way
- 之 it, the situation (object pronoun)
- 何 what (interrogative pronoun)
fixed interrogative idiom asking how one could handle or cope with a situation.
- 子曰 zǐ yuē
the Master said
- 子 the Master, Confucius (respectful address)
- 曰 said
- 君子 jūn zǐ
exemplary person, gentleman, superior man
- 君 lord, ruler; 君子 is literally a lord's son
- 子 son; 君子 is literally a lord's son, one of the ruling class, which the Analects makes a term of character
- 居 jū
to dwell, live, reside
- 之 zhī
them, referring to the tribes
- 何 hé
what
- 陋 lòu
crudeness, rudeness, uncouthness
the rhetorical question implies that a gentleman's presence dispels any crudeness of the place.
- 之 zhī
particle marking the fronted object of a verb
- 有 yǒu
there is, there be (existential verb)
here used in the rhetorical 何…之…有 pattern, 'what X is there', implying 'there is none'.
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