論語 CONFUCIAN ANALECTS

子曰、可也、未若貧而樂、富而好禮者。也。子貢曰、詩云、如切如磋、如琢如磨、其斯之謂與。子曰、賜也、始可與言詩已矣、告諸往而知來者。

The Master replied, “They will do; but they are not equal to him, who, though poor, is yet cheerful, and to him, who, though rich, loves the rules of propriety.”

2. Tsze-kung replied, “It is said in the Book of Poetry, ‘As you cut and then file, as you carve and then polish.’—The meaning is the same, I apprehend, as that which you have just expressed.”

3. The Master said, “With one like Ts‘ze original: 賜, the personal name of Tsze-kung, I can begin to talk about the odes. I told him one point, and he knew its proper sequence.”

him to higher attainments. 而, here, = “and yet.” 何如, “what as?” = “what do you say—what is to be thought—of this?” Observe the force of the 未, “not yet.” 2. The ode quoted is the first of the songs of Wei (衛), praising the prince Wû, who had dealt with himself as an ivory worker who first cuts the bone, and then files it smooth, or a lapidary whose hammer and chisel are followed by all the appliances for smoothing and polishing. See the Shih-ching Book of Poetry, I, v, Ode I, st. 2. In 其斯之謂, the antecedent to 其 is the passage of the ode, and that to 斯 is the reply of Confucius. 之謂 to speak of, see Prémare, p. 156. The clause might be translated—“Is not that passage the saying of this?” Or, “Does not that mean this?” 3. Intorcetta and his coadjutors translate here as if 賜 were in the 2nd pers. But the Chinese comm. put it in the 3rd, and correctly. Prémare, on the character 也 a particle indicating pause or assertion, says, “Fere semper adjungitur nominibus propriis. Sic in libro Lun Yu, Confucius loquens de suis discipulis, Yeou, Keou, Hoei, velipsos alloquens, dicit 由也, 求也, 回也.” translation: It is almost always attached to proper names. Thus in the book Lun Yu, Confucius speaking of his disciples, Yeou, Keou, Hoei, or addressing them themselves, says: You ye, Keou ye, Hoei ye. It is not to be denied that the name before 也, is sometimes in the 2nd pers., but generally it is in the 3rd, and the force of the 也 = quoad as regards. 賜也, quoad Ts‘ze. 已矣, ‘nearly’ = 也. 已 (or 已 without marking the tone), in chap. xiv. The last clause may be given—“Tell him the past, and he knows the future;” but the connection determines the meaning as in the translation. 諸, as in chap. x, is a particle, a mere 語助 speech-helper, as it is called, “a helping or supporting word.”