Where it came from
What 矣 first meant, how it became a function word, and where it stands today.
A particle from the very beginning of the record. Classical 矣 marked the new state of affairs, which is this whole page’s story, and it lost that job to 了, which grew out of the verb “to finish” during the Tang and Song. Today 矣 shows up only when a writer wants to sound old: 悔之晚矣 “too late for regret”, 足矣 “that’s enough”. So if your instinct as a modern Mandarin reader is that 矣 feels like 了, that isn’t an analogy. It’s a family tree.
Across the books
Densest in Book 13 (18 occurrences).
- 16
- 22
- 36
- 411
- 56
- 610
- 712
- 89
- 96
- 105
- 116
- 1212
- 1318
- 1411
- 1516
- 1617
- 1711
- 186
- 199
- 202
How it works
Every job 矣 does, counted over its 181 occurrences in the Analects — commonest first. Tap a passage number to see the whole passage.
1Perfective particle181× · 100%
This 矣 says the situation is new: something finished, arrived, or is about to. Grammarians call it perfective. Modern Chinese says exactly this with 了. 可以為師矣 is 可以當老師了. In 4.4, 苟志於仁矣, the 矣 tells you the change is complete: the will is now set.
English has no particle for it. It reaches for one of these instead:
- the perfect tense: “I have heard”
- “already”, “now”
- nothing at all. Three quarters of the bare 矣 in the book come out as a full stop
The examples below are the ones where a translator gave it a word.
Gloss has⋯, is now⋯; already (like 了)
Look for sentence-final, after a verb or a quality that has changed — 老矣, 聞之矣, 行矣; with 將 earlier in the clause, “about to”.
Technical final particle marking that a state has newly come about or an action has reached completion, asserting present fact rather than 也's timeless judgment
4 examples
齊景公待孔子，曰：「若季氏則吾不能，以季、孟之閒待之。」曰：「吾老矣，不能用也。」孔子行。
The Duke Jing of Qi, with reference to the manner in which he should treat Confucius, said: "I cannot treat him as I would the chief of the Ji family. I will treat him in a manner between that accorded to the chief of the Ji, and that given to the chief of the Meng family."
He also said: "I am old; I cannot use his doctrines." Confucius took his departure.
Legge 1861
The textbook 矣. 吾老矣 isn’t “I am old” but “I have become old”, a state newly arrived at, and it’s the reason Duke Jing gives for not employing Confucius. Only two translators give the arrival a word. Ni writes “I am too old to employ him now”; Roberts: “I have grown too old now”, and Legge lets a semicolon do it: “I am old; I cannot use his doctrines”.
Modern Chinese would say 我老了, and that 了 is this 矣’s direct descendant.
子路從而後，遇丈人，以杖荷蓧。子路問曰：「子見夫子乎？」丈人曰：「四體不勤，五穀不分。孰為夫子？」植其杖而芸。子路拱而立。止子路宿，殺雞為黍而食之，見其二子焉。明日，子路行以告。子曰：「隱者也。」使子路反見之。至則行矣。子路曰：「不仕無義。長幼之節，不可廢也；君臣之義，如之何其廢之？欲潔其身，而亂大倫。君子之仕也，行其義也。道之不行，已知之矣。」
Zilu, following the Master, happened to fall behind, when he met an old man, carrying across his shoulder on a staff a basket for weeds. Zilu said to him: "Have you seen my master, sir!"
The old man replied: "Your four limbs are unaccustomed to toil; you cannot distinguish the five kinds of grain: — who is your master?" With this, he planted his staff in the ground, and proceeded to weed.
Zilu joined his hands across his breast, and stood before him. The old man kept Zilu to pass the night in his house, killed a fowl, prepared millet, and feasted him. He also introduced to him his two sons. Next day, Zilu went on his way, and reported his adventure. The Master said: "He is a recluse," and sent Zilu back to see him again, but when he got to the place, the old man was gone.
Zilu then said to the family: "Not to take office is not righteous. If the relations between old and young may not be neglected, how is it that he sets aside the duties that should be observed between sovereign and minister? Wishing to maintain his personal purity, he allows that great relation to come to confusion. A superior man takes office, and performs the righteous duties belonging to it. As to the failure of right principles to make progress, he is aware of that."
Legge 1861
Completion measured against another event: by the time Zilu got back to the old farmer’s house, the leaving was done. 至則行矣, four characters, and the 矣 is one of them. Slingerland, Ames & Rosemont, and Chin all write “already”. Legge closes with a full stop and lets the past tense do it.
衛靈公問陳於孔子。孔子對曰：「俎豆之事，則嘗聞之矣；軍旅之事，未之學也。」明日遂行。
The Duke Ling of Wey asked Confucius about tactics. Confucius replied: "I have heard all about sacrificial vessels, but I have not learned military matters."
On this, he took his departure the next day.
Legge 1861
Here English has a real device for 矣, the perfect tense, and six of the eight reach for it. 嘗聞之矣 is an experience completed and on the record. “I have heard” from Legge, Ni, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont, Watson; Lau adds the particle’s force outright, “I have, indeed, heard something”, and Slingerland and Chin flatten it to “I know something about”.
Confucius is declining to advise Duke Ling of Wei on troop formations. Ritual he has studied; war he has not.
子夏曰：「賢賢易色，事父母能竭其力，事君能致其身，與朋友交言而有信。雖曰未學，吾必謂之學矣。」
Zixia said: "If a man withdraws his mind from the love of beauty, and applies it as sincerely to the love of the virtuous; if, in serving his parents, he can exert his utmost strength; if, in serving his prince, he can devote his life; if, in his intercourse with his friends, his words are sincere: — although men say that he has not learned, I will certainly say that he has."
Legge 1861
Zixia’s verdict on the man who honours the worthy, serves his parents, and keeps his word: whatever anyone says, the learning has been done. Legge gives the 矣 the perfect auxiliary and nothing else: “I will certainly say that he has”, and the other seven fold it into a participle: “learned”, “well educated”, where the participle is what says the thing is complete.
2Exclamatory 矣counted within the senses above
Not a different word. It’s the same completion 矣, in places where the feeling comes forward with it. It can be a full stop, a period, and the extra emphasis all at once.
- A one-word verdict: 忠矣, 是謂過矣. English: “indeed”, “certainly”
- An inversion, the exclaimed word first: 鮮矣仁, 甚矣吾衰也. English: “How⋯!”
- In the pairs 矣夫 and 矣哉 the sigh belongs to the second particle (see 命矣夫 on the 夫 page and 久矣哉 on the 哉 page), and 矣 keeps its own job of saying the state is reached
Gloss indeed⋯!; how⋯!
Look for inverted openings like 甚矣, 鮮矣, 久矣, and the one-word verdict that closes on 矣 — 忠矣, 是謂過矣.
4 examples
子張問曰：「令尹子文三仕為令尹，無喜色；三已之，無慍色。舊令尹之政，必以告新令尹。何如？」子曰：「忠矣。」曰：「仁矣乎？」曰：「未知，焉得仁？」「崔子弒齊君，陳文子有馬十乘，棄而違之。至於他邦，則曰：『猶吾大夫崔子也。』違之。之一邦，則又曰：『猶吾大夫崔子也。』違之。何如？」子曰：「清矣。」曰：「仁矣乎？」曰：「未知。焉得仁？」
Zizhang asked, saying: "The minister Ziwen thrice took office, and manifested no joy in his countenance. Thrice he retired from office, and manifested no displeasure. He made it a point to inform the new minister of the way in which he had conducted the government; — what do you say of him?"
The Master replied: "He was loyal."
"Was he perfectly virtuous?"
"I do not know. How can he be pronounced perfectly virtuous?"
Zizhang proceeded: "When the officer Cui killed the prince of Qi, Chen Wen, though he was the owner of forty horses, abandoned them and left the country. Coming to another State, he said, 'They are here like our great officer, Cui,' and left it. He came to a second State, and with the same observation left it also; — what do you say of him?"
The Master replied: "He was pure."
"Was he perfectly virtuous?"
"I do not know. How can he be pronounced perfectly virtuous?"
Legge 1861
The shortest form of the usage: one word of praise and 矣. 忠矣:
- “certainly”: Slingerland, Ames & Rosemont, Chin
- “indeed”: Ni, Lau
- “surely”: Roberts
- Legge and Watson let the full stop do it: “He was loyal.”
The passage does it twice, 忠矣 for Ziwen and 清矣 for Chen Wenzi, and both times refuses the further word 仁.
子曰：「巧言令色，鮮矣仁！」
The Master said, "Seldom human-hearted are those whose words and manners aim to please."
Editor's translation
Read the commentary
The inversion: 鮮矣仁, “rare, human-heartedness”, with the exclaimed word and its particle first and the subject trailing after. 矣 is a slippery one. It always is. Some renderings turn it into “indeed” or “alas”:
- Lau: “It is rare, indeed, for a man with cunning words⋯”
- Ames & Rosemont: “It is a rare thing”
- Legge, Ni, Slingerland: a plain “seldom” or “rarely”
- Watson throws an exclamation point at it: “little humaneness there!”
I did something different. I inverted the English word order too, to put the emphasis on the rareness: “Seldom human-hearted are those whose words and manners aim to please.” The line is repeated word for word at 17.17.
子曰：「甚矣吾衰也！久矣吾不復夢見周公。」
The Master said: "Extreme is my decay. For a long time, I have not dreamed, as I was wont to do, that I saw the Duke of Zhou."
Legge 1861
甚矣吾衰也, “extreme, my decline”. The same inversion, and here the fronted 甚矣 comes out as an English exclamation at the front:
- “How”: Lau “How I have gone downhill!”, Slingerland “How seriously I have declined!”, Roberts, Watson
- “My how”: Ames & Rosemont
- Legge and Ni keep the Chinese order: “Extreme is my decay”
The 也 at the end is the topic marker on 吾衰, not a second exclamation.
子曰：「過而不改，是謂過矣。」
The Master said: "To have faults and not to reform them, — this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults."
Legge 1861
A verdict sealed by 矣: that, and nothing before it, is the fault. 是謂過矣:
- “indeed”: Legge, Ni, Roberts, Ames & Rosemont, Lau, Watson
- “truly”: Slingerland
- Chin: “now that is called making a mistake”
The particle says the state is settled, and the English intensifier is what that settledness sounds like in a one-line judgment.