Book 9: 《子罕》 Zi Han (Seldom Spoke)
《子罕》 Passage 9.17
Legge Translation (1861)
The Master standing by a stream, said: "It passes on just like this, not ceasing day or night!"Word by word
- 子 zǐ
the Master, Confucius
- 在…上 zài … shàng
locative circumfix: to be positioned at, on the bank/edge of
- 在 locative verb: to be at, situated, positioned
- 上 locative particle: on, at the top/edge of
- 川 chuān
river, stream
- 曰 yuē
said, spoke
- 逝者 shì zhě
that which passes on, flows away, elapses
- 逝 to pass on, flow away, elapse (of time or water)
- 者 nominalizing particle: that which, the one who
One of the most quoted lines in the Analects; commentators traditionally read the river's flow as a figure for the ceaseless passing of time and life.
- 如斯 rú sī
is like this, thus
- 如 to be like, resemble
- 斯 this, this very thing
- 夫 fú
sentence-final exclamatory particle
Peimin Ni, Ames & Rosemont, and Watson recast the line as a rhetorical question to carry 夫's force; Lau instead reads it as a tentative modal, 'perhaps'; the other four render it only through the exclamation mark.
- 不舍 bù shě
does not stop, never ceases, never rests
- 不 not
- 舍 to stop, rest, let up — Common dictionary sense is 'house, dwell'; here it functions as 捨, to stop/cease.
舍 is read here as 捨, 'to stop, let go, rest,' rather than the common dictionary sense 'house, dwell.'
- 晝夜 zhòu yè
day and night, continuously
- 晝 daytime, day
- 夜 night
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