《為政》第二

Note: This follows Section I previously translated. In this section, a discussion takes place regarding two subjects: one, how propriety translates from the personal sphere to governance; two, how to conduct oneself so as to be taken up by a state and have an influence on court life.

1. 子曰：「為政以德，譬如北辰，居其所而眾星共之。」
Master said: “Conduct politics according to virtue, analogous to the Northern Constellation, residing in its station while multitudinous stars surround it.”
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《梁惠王下》

Note: This famous Mencius passage on the virtue of benevolent rule plays on the three derivatives of the morphemic root 樂, which linguistic pun reflects the very heart of the Classical era (i.e. Earlier Kings’ era) ideology of achieving elective conformity and concordance in group behavior — and by extension, society — through symphonic rites.

8. 莊暴見孟子，曰：「暴見於王，王語暴以好樂，暴未有以對也。」曰：「好樂何如？」
Zhuang Bao seeing Mencius, said: “(When) Bao was seen by the king, the king opined to Bao regarding liking harmony, Bao was yet to have a reply to be used.” (Zhuang Bao) said: “What follows liking harmony?”
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There doesn’t seem to be any literal translation of the Analects out there that tracks the original grammar, which is annoying. So here I did it, in-text commentary in parentheses. Not a big fan of this text.

《學而》第一

Note: The princely scholars, sometimes translated as gentleman-scholars, are more or less the intellectual elite who assign themselves the task of defining morality and leading by example. Here, they have a rambling discussion about the desirable traits of a princely scholar (and therefore the ideal benevolent man), and how such a person participates in managing the masses, who need not understand anything but merely follow along.

1. 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？」
Master said: “Learning and fittingly applying it, isn’t that also persuasion? Having comrades from afar be drawn, isn’t that also concordance? Others not understanding yet one not harboring resentment, isn’t that also being a princely scholar [junzi]?”

(To learn and teach through example and action, and to get resonance among peers is the mark of an elite intellectual; whether others get it is not important. Confucius is talking about his own reasons for teaching rather than going on the lobbying circuit, where he was frequently rebuffed.)
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Nah, a bit of an exaggeration. If I didn’t remember wrongly, these people are relatives of a friend … the fact that the uncomfortably awkward interview is in English for a Chinese audience is a little bizarre, but the fact that the interviewee has a tiny bit of Chinese accent in English and a tiny bit of English accent in Chinese is cute.

P.S. There was a bit of miscommunication on the character 芦, which she apparently didn’t recognize. Yeah, taxonomical vocabulary is usually not learned well by non-native speakers (that stuff is learned before age 5 and then don’t come up any more), but 葫芦 is common, come on.

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