| Preface
Confucius died in 0479. Probably in that year, his protégés wrote down 16 of his remembered sayings (see TOA 10-11). These were the core of what later became the Analects (in Chinese Lun Yw; abbreviated LY). At first the sayings functioned as a device of continuity for those carrying on the enterprise of Confucius after his death. They were probably chosen from other remembered sayings in order to define him as the tutelary persona of the ongoing movement. The final group of sixteen will thus have been intended to summarize the meaning of Confucius, for the disciples themselves, and now also for us in for future ages. In this and the next three Lessons, we will look at the first five sayings of this core set. Here is the first saying. It gives advice for a young protégé aiming at an official career. Text
/ Notes
/ Translation
/ Vocabulary
/ Extra /
Commentary Grammar. For a start, distinguish V2 = transitive verb (normally takes an object) and V3 = intransitive verb (normally does not take an object). Many of the latter are "stative verbs" which describe a situation or state or condition. Also contrast B = adverb occurring before the verb, and F = adverb or complement which follows the verb. Writing. For the mechanics of writing, see the separate Calligraphy page. Remember that the character itself does not determine meaning. Usage determines meaning. Reference ConventionsIn the Notes and in the Dictionary pages, "1a" means Lesson 1, Text line a. "1a1" means the 1st word in line a (and 1a2 is the second word in that line, and so on). Some grammatical lines (like 1b in the text of this Lesson) occupy two or more physical rows of the Lesson text. This is just a space limitation applying to Internet composition. The Dictionary character codes distinguish between words pronounced identically, thus
both pronounced "rvn2." We will sometimes use these Dictionary distinctions in the Notes as well. Please don't pronounce the "a" and "b" (etc) in those codes. They are just arbitrary identification markers. Practice pronouncing the text before you even look at the Notes. This is counterintuitive, but it works. We will soon have something for your intellect to do. But first acquire the text, by internalizing it through repetition. This internal possession of the text is the peg on which you will in a moment hang the work of the intellect. Say the text over to yourself. Make it yours. Soon you will find out what it is. The text has no title; it is just a saying within the Analects (Lun Yw). And yes, we will learn the characters for Lun Yw as extra vocabulary; see the end of the Vocabulary section. Clicking on a CHARACTER will take you to the Dictionary entry for that word; this will be more use to you in later Lessons. Clicking on a PRONUNCIATION will take you to the Note on that word; these Notes are contained on a parallel page. The meaning tags given below each character are not a "literal translation," they are just identifying mnemonics. They are the semantic elements out of which, with the aid of the grammar rules, a translation can be assembled. For one version of the final result, see below under Translation. The arrangement of lines within these lesson texts is not capricious; it is meant to emphasize parallel sentence structures, which are very prominent in the rhetoric of this period.
The Notes for individual words in the above text are on a separate page. Click on a pronunciation to go to the corresponding Note. What the Note gives you is the immediately necessary information about the word, to understand its meaning in that sentence. There is some additional information given for some of these characters in the Vocabulary section, below, so you will get the maximum value out of your work in learning that character. We may add that some pronunciations given in future Lesson texts will not be underlined. In those cases, there is no new information needed to understand that word in that sentence. If you forget the information you learned in previous Lessons, you can always click on the character itself to get to the Dictionary entry, which in turn gives clickable references to previous texts. Clicking
on the underlined reference code at the beginning of a Note, or on the return
bar ( [As noted above, the meaning tags in the lesson text are not a "literal translation." The literal translation of this or any other sentence is simply a rendition of what the sentence says. Part of what it says is conveyed in the words, part is in the way the words are combined, and part is in the way the sentence sits in the passage, the passage in the work, and the work in the context of the whole culture. All these signals affect the meaning of the sentence. The sentence is not simply the sum of its single-word mnemonic meaning tags].
This is obviously addressed to a young hopeful, advising him to associate with the virtuous (clearly, rvn2 is some sort of good thing). Whether this advice is offered on a high philosophical plane (be virtuous), or as a practical matter (don't endanger your reputation; make contact with those who can help you in your career) does not immediately appear. We may be in a better position to decide when we have read the next few sayings. Few sentences convey all you need to know to understand them; they imply a cultural and situational context which we, as strangers in a late millennium, do not possess. Part of learning to read is recovering that lost context So be patient for a little while. See also the Commentary below. VocabularyTo read the above piece requires a character vocabulary of 12, plus some knowledge of the words associated with those 12 characters. The Notes to the characters as they occurred in the text gave the information most immediately necessary to read the text correctly. In this section, we now follow that up by giving some additional information, to equip you more fully for the next time you meet these same characters. We will also learn 4 related characters, for a total Lesson vocabulary of 16. Having those additional characters lets us use more realistic practice material, and makes your first exposure to the classical language that much more adequate. The other thing needed to read this piece understandingly is an idea of what it is talking about, which means an idea of the world around it. For that aspect, see the Commentary, below. Here, now, is some extra information about these characters that would take you a long time to acquire just by direct reading experience. 1a1.
dz3 The same word dz3 means "son," or sometimes more generally "child," in such compounds as "father and son." Learn this meaning, but don't spend time speculating about a cultural connection between dz3 "master" and dz3 "son." Simply treat them as different words, which (handily for us, given how much work is involved in learning each new character) happen to be written with the same character. 1a4.
rvn2 In early texts (and still at the present time, for that matter), rvn2 "man" can routinely and specifically mean "other people," and we might try to render the derived word rvn2a as "otherness" or "other-centeredness." Most of its later shades of meaning retain something of this otherness, ranging from the selflessness of the (06c) warrior doing battle for his lord to the generous altruism of the ruler in the (04c) social-welfare state. 1b5.
yen1 1b6.
dv2 In this section, we give you some words which it is useful for you to know at this point but which are not contained in the Lesson. And are not closely cognate with words in the Lesson. For later review, besides being sure you remember the Lesson text, check the red additional entries in the Vocabulary section, plus everything in this Extra Vocabulary section. The only words in this category we are adding for Lesson 1 are the ones which make up the name of the text we are reading: xv1. lun4
xv2.
yw3 The first thing on the Practice page is an unmarked copy of the Lesson text. Click here. You should be able to say the text correctly, simply by looking at the unmarked text, before you can consider that you are ready to move on to the next Lesson. (If you really want to be good at this stuff, you will keep on until you can write the character text from memory, but there is also a use for being only pretty good at this stuff). Now we can expand our understanding of the text a bit, using our minds. Here are some things for your mind to be aware of, in connection with the text. Cultural Style. The context can help you detect the meanings of words. Jr1 in the present passage is normally translated "wise," and line 1b is normally read "how shall he become wise?" But jr1 in the early layers of the Analects is not linked in this way to the virtue rvn2a. It is not even a positive quality in its own right. Instead, it is associated with the socially low "little people" whom LY 4 in particular (the core of the Analects) is concerned to contrast with the proper gentlemen. It is only later that jr1 acquires a positive connotation, and counts as a virtue. That change is probably the result of the high cultural stratum accepting values from the lower. It would be a mistake to homogenize such differences as the social value of jr1 in the earliest Analects, as contrasted with its different value in the later Analects. They are signs of growth and change in the thought of the period, or at least this corner of it. They are immensely valuable as evidence for the history of the culture. Don't steamroller them (as the commentaries usually do). And don't expect to have only one translation equivalent for each word in the lexicon of the text. Sometimes the social nuances may need to be reflected in translation. Anyway, now we have read the text. As it stands, it looks like expedient advice: to hang around the right people so that your qualities will become known to them, leading hopefully to preferment for court position. That sounds very crass, and later scholarship is reluctant to make Confucius sound crass. But seeking one's own advantage is not taboo in all social usages, and the gentleman of the earliest Analects seems to have been entitled to put himself forward in this implicit way. Since there was a social taboo on more direct self-advertisement, the art of being noticed was the only one available, if your abilities are not to go completely to waste. As we will see presently, the gentleman was also required not to be resentful if his qualities were overlooked. But the offering of one's abilities was all right. The metaphor of offering one's abilities for sale, is used in a somewhat later passage, Analects 9:13. That's much more crass than anything a commentator would dare suggest for 4:1. Recognition. After pondering all this helplessness of the gentleman to either openly advertise his qualities or to openly resent their being overlooked, it will come as no surprise that having your qualities recognized by a superior, or even by an equal, is one of the great themes of the elite culture. See further in Henry Recognition. Practice PhrasesFrom these thoughts we return to physical practice; the process of acquiring a piece of the language once the preliminary work of understanding it has been done. The following phrases are not invented; they are all taken from actual Warring States texts. If it wouldn't be more confusing than helpful at this point, we could cite a source passage for each of them, and send you to read that passage in English. Instead, take our word for it that you are here working on real Chinese, not on fake Chinese. Write the phrases in characters, and say them aloud as you simply look at them while visualizing the characters. It is one way to capture what you have learned (we will get to the other way in just a moment). All this will make your retention and understanding much greater. (01) yen1 jr1 BV "how shall I know?" (02) bu4-mei3 XV "not beautiful." (The join between bu- and the word it negates is phonetically close, and we will sometimes write such phrases without the hyphen, as bu4mei3). (03) mei3-rvn2 QH "comely person," usually "beautiful girl," but sometimes "estimable man." (04) jr1 rvn2 VO "understand people/others; recognize their good [or bad] qualities." (05) bu4-rvn2 XV "is inhumane, is unkind" (DDJ 5: "Heaven and Earth are unkind; the Sage is unkind"). (06) bu4-dv2 XV "did not find [it]." You don't always need to express the object. (07) dv2 rvn2 VO "succeed in winning the allegiance of people/others" (these idioms are very common in the military and statecraft texts). (08) chu3 yen2 VF "abode therein." (09) wei2 rvn2 VO "be/act as a man = way of being, personal character as seen in actions." Playing a social role, taking a certain part in public affairs. (10) bu4-jr1 XV23 [note the V23 passive] "[I] am not known, my qualities are not recognized." (11) lun4 rvn2 VO "discuss people; evaluate their good and bad points." (12) Dz3 bu4-yw3 SXV "The Master did not speak of . . ." This sentence needs an object. For the things supposedly not spoken of by Confucius, see LY *7:21 (but be warned that this is a later passage, and reflects a later image of Confucius). Notice how many of the above are involved with Person A intuiting, or failing to intuit, the condition or the wishes of Person B. We don't want to tire you out by sending you constantly to other texts for some scrap of confirmation, but you might look up the DDJ 5 passage, mentioned above. Here is a voice from a source which at many points is opposed to the later Confucian view of things. What exactly is its position here? The next thing is to practice these phrases in the other direction, that is, from an unmarked character text for which you will supply the sounds. Click here. GrammarThere are three main points to note: sentence types, word order, and word class change. Sentence Types. Chinese has three minimal sentence types: a verbal predicate V, a noun predicate A, and an exclamation E. None requires, and the last cannot have, a subject S. Of these three types, the lesson passage includes examples only of type V, the commonest. We will meet the others later. Of the two sentences in the lesson, the first has a subject (actually a phrase consisting of a verb V plus a complement F phrase, functioning at a higher level as a subject S) and the second does not. Sentences without expressed subjects are not abnormal. They are very common, and they require no special explanation. Chinese is merely a little cavalier toward subjects of sentences, just as English (as compared to French) is a little cavalier about the gender of the noun which a given adjective may modify. Chinese likes to focus instead on the payoff: the predicate, the actual thing that is asserted or denied. Word Order. Linguists sometimes classify languages by the order of the S (subject), V (verb) and O (object) elements in the normal sentence in that language. In terms of that typology, Chinese (like English) is an SVO language (whereas Japanese and Latin are SOV languages). As just noted, the S need not be present, and there are conditions under which certain types of object are put earlier in the sentence, but SVO is the basic groundplan. We who come to Chinese from English thus find ourselves on rather familiar territory. It is even sometimes necessary for the English-based student to make an effort to pay attention to Chinese grammar, since it does not draw attention to itself by constantly varying from the expectation patterns of English. There are points of divergence, which we will notice as we go along. But on the whole, classical Chinese grammar is not going to be a constant problem for those with an English mental "set." For examples of the ways the structure of a language can affect perceptions of objects and temporal processes, see the classic papers of Whorf, noting that they do not at all countenance the sort of linguistic determinism that some recent "Whorfians" assert. Junk. In terms of the previous note on sentence type, it will be seen that the business end of the Chinese sentence is the end, not the beginning (the S beginning of the SVO pattern in particular is optional). Chinese tends to put the garbage of the sentence up near the beginning, so as to clear the way for a crisp final predicate. This is very different in style from Japanese, where keeping the verb going as long as possible has become a high literary art. You know what the subject of the sentence is, but you can take a long time finding out what the sentence is going to say about that thing. It's a different linguistic psychology. Word Class Changes. The other big news in this lesson is verb/noun class changes. Notice that these changes do not make the noun and verb classes unreal. On the contrary, they prove the reality of noun and verb classes. The Chinese word is not a philosophical abstraction, it is a concrete linguistic something with its own first expectations as to usage. It often has to make an effort (such as a change of tone) to overcome that first expectation. Here is a review of some types of word class change:
On the last, note that the most ambitious courtier is ultimately dependent on - is socially passive to - the recognition of his worth by a superior; an employer or one well placed to recommend him to an employer. This dependency situation leads to a development of the neglected female persona as a motif in literature, the female symbolizing a disprized male courtier. Use of the passive, where the agent need not be specified, is often an indicator of socially unassignable fault. Get the habit of paying attention to passives. They can be suggestive. ReflectionMuch advice in the classic texts is not simply advice for, it is by implication also advice against. Having gotten this far, what would you say was the course against which LY 4:1 recommends an alternative? Warring States Society cannot, at the outset, guide our reading of the texts. That society is not itself known apart from hints in the texts. It must be deduced from those hints, with an occasional assist from archaeology. So questions like the previous one are not irresponsible; they are a basic and necessary discovery procedure in this branch of history. The texts come to us out of social situations about which, unfortunately, we do not know very much besides what the texts indirectly tell us. We must thus regularly attempt to construct a scenario for them; a way in which what they present to us might have come about. What, then (let us practice by asking ourselves), is the question to which LY 4:1 provides an answer? How might that question have come up in conversation between a mentor and his protégé? What value is at issue in the choice between the implied alternatives? Archaeologists work wonders with unpromising dust (an ecosystem, for instance, can be reconstructed from plant pollen in tombs). We text people need to sharpen the skill with which we process our kind of evidence. Not constructing, but sensitively detecting, the world that once surrounded the artifact. ProgressWell, that's the end of this Lesson, and now we have begun. Beginnings always involve a certain amount of flurry and confusion. Much of that will pass with time and familiarization. The best way to hasten familiarization is to memorize the text and recite it at every opportunity. But if some of the confusion is due to a point being badly explained in the Lesson, that is our fault. We will try to fix it; send us a note. In the lesson text of 13 words, we learned 12 characters, and in the Vocabulary we learned 4 more characters (rvn2, dv2a, lun2 [plus lun4], and yw3), for a total of 16. Future lessons will aim at about that degree of new character learning. It is harder to learn characters when you are new to writing them, like right now. On the other hand, right now you have only 16 of them to review and practice, compared with hundreds later on. It is going to even out, and each lesson is going to take about the same amount of time and energy. Of course rvn2 "man" occurs more often in texts than does dzv2 "pick out," but all these characters are worth learning. Every character in the classical language has a certain general frequency; an expected rate of occurrence. It is thus possible ask what proportion of the typical classical text is represented by the characters so far learned. Since some users of these lessons will be aiming at reading texts from the postclassical period as well, the relevant standard will not be classical Chinese strictly speaking. It will be the more inclusive "literary" Chinese, which includes things like Tang poetry in addition to later philosophical and historical prose. Thus defined, the characters in this lesson give access to (note: not "confer mastery of") 6.55% of the average literary Chinese text. We will update this figure in each subsequent Lesson. That percent of total coverage will climb rapidly at first, as we acquire the most common basic vocabulary, and then more and more slowly, as the cumulative-frequency curve begins to level out. Use your powers of equanimity, your calmness of heart, on this initial rapid increase, and also on the slower rate of increase later on. It's just the way the language - any language - works. For perspective: Our goal is the 90% coverage level. This is the point where you should be able to get an idea, at sight, of what a typical literary Chinese text is about. It is also the point at which the choice of what words to learn next depends more and more on what texts you intend to read. That will be the place to end these lessons, and turn you loose on the world. Meanwhile, practice hard, and we will see you in Lesson 2. Classical Chinese Primer is Copyright © 2000- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks Comments to The Project / Go to Grammar Abbreviations / Exit to Classical Primer Page |
("man") and rvn2a 
("humane"),
)
at the end of it, will take you back to the line of text from which you started.
The return arrow at the bottom of the Notes page will bring you back to this paragraph.
