Usages
3 distinct jobs 之 does in the Analects, each with examples from the text.
1Possessive marker (的)
Connects a modifier to what it modifies, equivalent to modern 的. The structure X之N means "the N of X" or "X's N".
子曰：「父母之年，不可不知也。一則以喜，一則以懼。」
The Master said: "The years of parents may by no means not be kept in the memory, as an occasion at once for joy and for fear."
Legge 1861
The plainest shape: noun 之 noun.
季康子問政於孔子曰：「如殺無道，以就有道，何如？」孔子對曰：「子為政，焉用殺？子欲善，而民善矣。君子之德風，小人之德草。草上之風，必偃。」
Ji Kang asked Confucius about government, saying: "What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of the principled?" Confucius replied: "Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it."
Legge 1861
Two 之 phrases in parallel — 君子之德 against 小人之德.
子貢曰：「夫子之文章，可得而聞也；夫子之言性與天道，不可得而聞也。」
Zigong said: "The Master's personal displays of his principles and ordinary descriptions of them may be heard. His discourses about man's nature, and the way of Heaven, cannot be heard."
Legge 1861
文章 belongs to 夫子; 之 links owner to thing owned.
有子曰：「禮之用，和為貴。先王之道斯為美，小大由之。有所不行，知和而和，不以禮節之，亦不可行也。」
The philosopher You said: "In practicing the rules of propriety, a natural ease is to be prized. In the ways prescribed by the ancient kings, this is the excellent quality, and in things small and great we follow them. Yet it is not to be observed in all cases. If one, knowing how such ease should be prized, manifests it, without regulating it by the rules of propriety, this likewise is not to be done."
Legge 1861
先王之道 = the Way OF the former kings
有子曰：「其為人也孝弟，而好犯上者，鮮矣；不好犯上，而好作亂者，未之有也。君子務本，本立而道生。孝弟也者，其為仁之本與！」
The philosopher You said: "They are few who, being filial and fraternal, are fond of offending against their superiors. There have been none, who, not liking to offend against their superiors, have been fond of stirring up confusion. The superior man bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all practical courses naturally grow up. Filial piety and fraternal submission! — are they not the root of all benevolent actions?"
Legge 1861
仁之本 = the root OF benevolence
2Object pronoun (him/her/it/them)
Refers back to something mentioned earlier. Unlike modern Chinese 他/她/它, 之 is placed after the verb.
子曰：「學而時習之，不亦說乎？有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎？人不知而不慍，不亦君子乎？」
The Master said: "Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters? Is he not a man of complete virtue, who feels no discomposure though men may take no note of him?"
Legge 1861
之 refers back to what was learned
子曰：「由！誨女知之乎？知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。」
The Master said: "Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to acknowledge that you do not know it; — this is knowledge."
Legge 1861
之 stands for the thing known; nothing else in the clause.
子曰：「三人行，必有我師焉。擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。」
The Master said: "When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them."
Legge 1861
之 picks up 其善者 from the clause before.
3Subordinating a clause (subject 之 predicate)
Placed between a subject and its predicate, 之 stops the clause being a standalone sentence and turns it into a noun-like chunk that can then serve as subject or object. 鳥將死 is a sentence, "the bird is about to die"; 鳥之將死 is a thing you can talk about, "the bird’s being about to die". Chinese grammarians call this 取消句子獨立性 — cancelling the sentence’s independence. English usually renders it with a possessive, which is why it can be mistaken for the 之 of 仁之本.
曾子有疾，孟敬子問之。曾子言曰：「鳥之將死，其鳴也哀；人之將死，其言也善。君子所貴乎道者三：動容貌，斯遠暴慢矣；正顏色，斯近信矣；出辭氣，斯遠鄙倍矣。籩豆之事，則有司存。」
The philosopher Zeng being ill, Meng Jing went to ask how he was. Zeng said to him: "When a bird is about to die, its notes are mournful; when a man is about to die, his words are good. There are three principles of conduct which the man of high rank should consider of especial importance: — that in his deportment and manner he keep from violence and heedlessness; that in regulating his countenance he keep near to sincerity; and that in his words and tones he keep far from lowness and impropriety. As to such matters as attending to the sacrificial vessels, there are the proper officers for them."
Legge 1861
將死 is a predicate, not a noun — so this 之 cannot be "of". Without it the clause would simply assert that the bird is dying.
1. 樂 : 或作「樂道」。《知不足齋叢書》本、《古逸叢書》本《論語集解》作「樂道」。
The Master said: "I will not be afflicted at men's not knowing me; I will be afflicted that I do not know men."
Legge 1861
Here the subordinated clause is the object of 患. 不己知 is a negated predicate with a fronted pronoun object.
儀封人請見。曰：「君子之至於斯也，吾未嘗不得見也。」從者見之。出曰：「二三子，何患於喪乎？天下之無道也久矣，天將以夫子為木鐸。」
The border warden at Yi requested to be introduced to the Master, saying: "When men of superior virtue have come to this, I have never been denied the privilege of seeing them." The followers of the sage introduced him, and when he came out from the interview, he said: "My friends, why are you distressed by your master's loss of office? The kingdom has long been without the principles of truth and right; Heaven is going to use your master as a bell with its wooden tongue."
Legge 1861
無道 is "lacks the Way", a predicate. The whole chunk is then the subject of 久矣 — it has gone on a long time.
Combos
9 fixed patterns built on 之, with the role each plays and where to read them.
"What can be done about...?" / "How...?"
A common rhetorical question pattern expressing uncertainty or helplessness about a situation.
"Do it" / "Act on it"
Common verb + pronoun pattern.
"Call it..." / "Refer to it as..."
Pattern for naming or defining: "call this X."
"What is called..." / "This is what is meant by..."
Nominalized form: "that which is called X."
"…them by means of…" — verb + object pronoun + instrument
A verb takes 之 as its object, then 以 introduces what it is done with. 2.3 sets four of these in parallel to contrast governing by law with governing by virtue.
"If you … them, then …"
The object pronoun 之 closes the condition and 則 opens the consequence. 7.11 pairs 用之則行 with 舍之則藏.
"one who …s it"
之 is the object, 者 nominalises the whole. 6.20 stacks three of them to rank knowing, liking, and delighting in something.
"what … is there?" — fronted object in a rhetorical question
Normally the object follows 有. Here it is pulled in front and resumed by 之, which marks the whole as a rhetorical denial. 何陋之有 = what squalor could there be?
"there has never been such a thing"
After a negator the pronoun object moves in front of its verb — 未之有 rather than 未有之. A regular rule of Classical Chinese word order.