溫人之周

I didn’t write any Classical Chinese text analyses for quite a while and I thought I’d analyze this following text from the book 戰國策 – The Warring states, which is called 溫人之周 – A man from the state of Wen went to Zhou. I like the story which if you are a bit familiar with the history of the Warring states has this nice contemporary feel. The grammar can get a bit complicated but still relatively easy compared to some of the more difficult texts in Classical Chinese (the unreadable 易經 for instance).

Text:

溫人之周

溫人之周，周不納客。問之曰：客耶？ 對曰：主人。問其巷而不知也，吏因囚之，君使人問之曰：子非周人也，而自謂非客，何也？對曰：臣少而誦詩。曰：普天之下，莫非王土；率土之濱，莫非王臣。今君天子，則我天子之臣也。豈有為人之臣而又為之客哉？故曰：主人也。君使出之。

Seal script version:

温人之周

温人之周，周不纳客问之曰：​​客耶？ 对曰：主人。问其巷而不知也，吏因囚之，君使人问之曰：子非周人也，而自谓非客，何也？对曰：臣少而同诵诗。曰：普天之下，莫非王土；率土之滨，莫非王臣。今君天子，则我天子之臣也。岂有为人之臣而又为之客哉？故曰：主人也。君使出之。 

Translation:

溫人之周 – A man from the state of Wen went to the state of Zhou

1. 溫人之周，A man from Wen went to the state of Zhou
2. 周不納客。The state of Zhou did not accept foreigners.
3. 問之曰：客耶？ Someone asked him: Are you a foreigner?
4. 對曰：主人。He answered: I am a local citizen.
5. 問其巷而不知也, They asked him where he lived, but he couldn’t tell.
6. 吏因囚之，The officers therefore arrested him.
7. 君使人問之曰：The ruler sent someone to ask him:
8. 子非周人也，You are not a man from Zhou.
9. 而自謂非客，But you didn’t call yourself a foreigner.
10. 何也？What is the truth?
11. 對曰：臣少而誦詩。When I was child, I used to recite a poem.
12. 詩曰：The poem went as follows:
13. 普天之下，莫非王土； There is nothing underneath the heavens that would not be King’s land
14. 率土之濱，莫非王臣。There is no one between the seashores, who would not be King’s servant.
15. 今君天子，If you are the Ruler of heavens
16. 則我天子之臣也。Then I am your servant
17. 豈有為人之臣而又為之客哉？How could one be a servant and a foreigner to someone at the same time!
18. 故曰：主人也。I thus said, I am a local citizen.
19. 君使出之。The king ordered to let the man go.

Vocabulary:

溫        wen1               the state of Wen

之        zhi1                  to go

周        zhou1               the state of Zhou

納        na4                  to enter

客        ke4                  foreigner

耶        ye2                  final question particle

主人    zhu3ren2          local citizen

其        qi2                   his, her, one’s

巷        xiang4              street, lane, alley

吏        shi3                  minor law enforcement official

因        yin1                 therefore

囚        qiu2                 imprison

君        jun1                 ruler, king

子        zi3                   you (second person pronoun)

非        fei1                  verbal negative

謂        wei4                to call something to be sth

何        he2                  How? Why? What?

臣        chen2               1. Servant 2. First person pronoun while talking to high officials

少        shao3               to be a child

誦        song4               to recite, to chant

詩        shi1                  poem

普        pu3                  everything

莫        mo2                 nothing

率土    shuai4tu3               the governed land

濱        bin1                 seashore

天子    tian1zi3            son of heavens

則        ze2                  thus

豈        qi3                   is it that..? could it be that..?

哉        zai1                  Sentence exclamation particle, rhetorical question

故        gu4                  Thus, the reason for

出        chu1                to release

Sentence structure analysis:

1. 溫人之周

I don’t think this sentence needs any special analysis for those who are familiar with the basics of Classical Chinese or for those who have read my previous posts related to this topic. As always it is necessary to find the predicate first, which is 之 in this case. Actually the only tricky part about this sentence is identifying the predicate correctly, since 之 could be a little confusing as it often has the meaning of the 3^rd person pronoun “he, she, it, they, them..” or what we could translate in to English as apostrophe + s (Peter’s pen, cat’s food) which is the same thing as 的 in Mandarin today. In this case 之 represents the verb “to go”.   

溫人	之	周
Subject	predicate	Object
Man of the state Wen	to go	State of Zhou

As said before, verbs in Classical Chinese should be translated into past tense so to make the sentence sound nicely it should look something like this:

A man from the state Wen went to the state of Zhou

 2. 周不納客。

Again we look for the predicate, then the subject and object and see if any of these have any other attributes (不 in this case): 

周	不納	客
Subject	Predicate	object
The state of Zhou	Not + accept	foreigner

3. 問之曰：客耶？

The first sentence 問之曰, is just a variation of the many 曰 sentences which introduce direct speech and has a little sub-sentence on its own:

-----	問	之
(Subject)	Predicate	Object
(They)	Asked	Him

            

So 問之曰 can be translated as: “They asked him and they said“. The question 客耶？As simple as Classical Chinese often is translates as - Are you a foreigner?:

-----	----	客	耶
(Subject)	(Predicate)	Object	Question part.
(You)	(Are)	foreigner	--

            

4. 對曰：主人。

對曰 is again one of the many 曰 phrase variations and it is translated as “He has answered”. The next sentence again is very straightforward and simple as it is omitting the subject and the predicate:

-----	-----	主人
(Subject)	(Predicate)	Object
(I)	(am)	Local citizen

5. 問其巷而不知也

This sentence has two predicates, therefore it is a compound sentence which is connected with the 而 conjunction, which is often translated as „and“ but in this case logically translates as „but“.

-----	問	其巷
(Subject)	Predicate	Object
(they)	to ask	His street

而 – but

-----	不知	----	也
(Subject)	Predicate	(Object)	Exclamation
(he)	not know	(it)

6. 吏因囚之

This is a nice sentence because it requires a little bit of thinking. 吏 is often translated as “to cause someone to do something” but, it also has the meaning of a “minor law enforcement official” sometimes. 因 often means because, but is translated as “therefore” in this case, 囚 as “prison” or as “to imprison” and 之 as 3^rd person pronoun “him”. I like this sentence, because even if you’d look up all the words in a dictionary, you still would have to think a little bit to come up with the correct translation.

吏	因	囚	之
Subject	Particle	Predicate	Object
Minor officer	Therefore	To imprison	Him

7. 君使人問之曰

This is another rather developed 曰 sentence which is preceded by a compound sentence with 2 predicates, where 使 has the more frequent meaning of “to make someone do something, to send someone do sth.”:

君	使	人
Subject	Predicate	Object
Ruler	To send	People/someone

This part is then connected to the earlier explained 問之曰 and the whole part is translated as:

“The ruler sent someone to ask him, and this person said:”

8. 子非周人也

For those of you who read my previous articles on Classical Chinese or those of you who are a little familiar with it, this sentence is of the “AB也” – type and should very straightforward. The AB也 construction can be positive or negative and this is the negative one. As the AB也 construction is translated as “A is B”, if you negate the B with a 非, you logically end up with “A is not B”:

子	非周人	也
A	B
You	Not a man of Zhou	To be
You are not a man of Zhou

9. 而自謂非客

This is actually still a part of the previous sentence, but I separated it to make the analysis clearer. The entire compound sentence子非周人也而自謂非客 has two predicates and is connected via the 而 conjunction. The second part of the sentence is as follows:

----	自謂	非客
(Subject)	Predicate	Object
(You)	Call oneself	No foreigner

10. 何也

This sentence can be found quite often in Classical Chinese texts and is directly translated as “How so?” or “How is that?”, but now that I look at it, it might be an AB也 construction as well:

-----	何	也
A	B
this	How?	To be

               

何 is a question word and you can imagine that it literally contains a question mark inside, which is then put at the end of the sentence in an English translation no matter the position of 何 in the sentence.

11. 對曰：臣少而誦詩

對曰 – simply translated as: He answered. The following 臣少而誦詩 is a compound sentence with one interesting verb - 少. It of course means “a little, few”, but also “young” or more importantly “to be young”. 臣 is a first person singular pronoun used to talk about oneself while talking to higher officials or the king, which often has the function of the noun “servant”. As verbs are often translated in past tense the first part of the sentence translates as:

臣少 - When I was a child

            The second part of the sentence is relatively easy to understand:

----	誦	詩
(Subject)	Predicate	Object
(I)	To recite, to chant	Poem

12. 詩曰

            Another 曰 phrase variation where the 曰 is developed as: The poem says.

13. 普天之下，莫非王土

These following four sentences are verses in Classical Chinese from the Book of Poetry (詩經) which is one or two times more difficult than Classical Chinese itself, which is already quite difficult, so  I only can be honest and say that I am not completely sure about them, especially the 率土之濱  part, but this is how I see things:

普天之下	莫	非	王土
Locator	Subject	Predicate	Object
Under the universal heavens	Nothing	Not to be	Land of the king
There is nothing under the heavens which would not be King’s land

普天之下 can be analyzed as follows

普天		之	下
Noun 1		Genitive marker	Noun 2
普Universal	天heavens	‘s	The place beneath

It looks a little complicated at first but what really matters is that there are two nouns and to put it simply, since there is the genitive particle之 Noun 2 sort of belongs to Noun 1. First you have to realize that下 does not mean “down”, but rather the noun having the meaning “The place beneath something”. So to literally translate this sentence you get: “The Universal heavens’ place beneath” and to put it into nice English: “Everything beneath the heavens”.

Now for the 莫非王土 part. This is actually quite straightforward with all three basic elements S – P – O present, with the only catch that the predicate is in negative非 form with the meaning “not to be” and the subject also happens to be a bearer of negative information 莫 – translated as “nothing” and as two negatives build one positive the translation is: Everything is the Land of King.

14. 率土之濱，莫非王臣。

This is a parallel sentence to sentence number 13 and its structure is the same, but as I said I have little problems completely understanding the 率土之濱 part. As it is a parallel to sentence no. 13, it obviously points to all the people in the land but the problem is, that when you look at the words in it, 率 means “to lead” and 濱 means “seashore” so my own interpretation would be:

率土		之	濱
Noun 1		Genitive marker	Noun 2
率 govern	土 land	‘s	Seashore, border

               

If I was to make a parallel with the first sentence, then in 率土之濱,  濱 should not refer to borders, but rather to the area within the borders, just as 下 refers to the area beneath the heavens in 普天之下. In that case the translation would be: “Within the borders of the land that the King rules, there is no one who is not a Servant of the King.” But this is only my personal interpretation. It might also be that 之 in these two sentences has a slightly different function, but rather than looking at all the 130 or so functions that the 之 has in Classical Chinese, I am quite satisfied with this improvised translation for the moment.

15. 今君天子，

今 in this sentence as mentioned in previous articles puts the sentence in a slightly conditional mood, and you can go ahead and translate it as a small “if”:

今	君	-----	天子
	Subject	(predicate)	Object
If	King	(Is)	Son of heavens

I have explained conjunctions of two nouns such as 天子 before. It is actually very simple and analogous to English which is also an isolating language. The first noun gives an attribute to the second noun. In English you have for instance “Operation manual” where you can ask: Why type of a manual is it? Operation manual. The same goes for 天子 (天 – heavens, 子 - son). What kind of son (子) is it? Son of heavens (天子). The entire sentence is then translated as:

If you are the son of heavens

16. 則我天子之臣也。

則 starts the second part of the conditional sentence and can be translated as “then” and it is followed by an AB也 construction in which 之 has the role of a Genitive marker:

我	天子之臣	也
A	B
I	Servant of the emperor of heavens	To be

           

17. 豈有為人之臣而又為之客哉？

This is a fairly long and complicated compound structure and has to be “dismantled” several times. First of all there are two elements which only introduce a rhetorical question and give it an exclamation at the end: 豈……哉.  豈 can be translated as “How could it be?” and哉 is this very funny exclamatory particle which is put at the end of a sentence and gives it that extra little emotional touch and when we learned it, our professor translated it as an initial “Oh!” :)

Now for the more complicated part: 有為人之臣而又為之客. “有” in this case has a function almost identical to the function of the modern “有” in the role of “there is” (es gibt  in German, il y a in French, c’e in Italian, hay in Spanish).

The following is the key part of the entire structure: 為人之臣而又為之客. The verb 為 has the meaning “to be something” or “to have a role of something” but is complicated to directly explain in isolation. For those of you who speak Mandarin it has the same meaning as 當 – “to be” (a teacher for instance). This sentence structure has two blocks connected with 而又:

1. 為人之臣 – to be someone’s servant

2. 為之客 – to be a foreigner (to him)

而 is a conjunction meaning “and” and 又 could be translated as “at the same time”. The sentence would then look like this:

豈	有	為人之臣而又為之客	哉
Rhet. Question	Predicate	Compound construction	Exclamation particle
How can it be	There is (a situation where)	Be a servant and a foreigner at the same time	Oh!
Oh! How could it be that one is a servant and a foreigner to someone at the same time?

18. 故曰：主人也。

Both of these sentences have already been discussed before. 故曰 is a variation of the 曰 phrase and translates as: “Therefore I said” and 主人也 is an AB也 construction:

----	主人	也
A	B
(I)	Local citizen	To be
I am a local citizen

19. 君使出之。

The last sentence contains the verb 使 (to make someone do sth), which makes things a little more complex as one verb directs the other, but nothing out of the ordinary:

君	使	出	之
Subject	Predicate 1	Predicate 2	Object
King	To make some do sth	To let go	3rd pers. Pronoun - him
The king ordered to let him go