Fuller's ILC Chapters 15 (莊子) and 16 (史記)

[somethingfunny]

Going to post this a day early as I'm not sure I'll have time tomorrow and it's good to have this up for the weekend.

 

15 曳尾於塗中 (莊子)

 

莊子釣於濮水。楚王使大夫二人往先焉，曰，願以境內累矣。莊子持竿不顧，曰，吾聞楚有神龜，死已三千歲矣。王巾笥而藏之廟堂之上。此龜者寧其死爲留骨而貴乎，寧其生而曳尾於塗中。二大夫曰寧生而曳尾塗中。莊子曰，往矣，吾將曳尾於塗中。

 

Questions

1. 焉, as a fusion of 于安, is an anaphoric locative pronoun; that is, it is a locative noun that refers to some previously mentioned place.  To what does it refer in the first line of the story?
2. In the phrase 死爲留骨, what is the relationship of 死 to the rest?  What is the object of 為?  What is the relationship of 留 and 骨?

 

Review

1. 以 is a coverb in the first line of the story.  What is its object?  What is the main verb?
2. What is the rhetorical function of the 而 in 寧生而曳尾塗中?
3. What is the function of 將 in the final sentence?

 

16 石奢 (史記)

 

石奢者，楚昭王相也。堅直廉正，無所阿避。行縣，道有殺人者，相追之，乃其父也。縱其父而還，自系焉，使人言之王曰殺人者臣之父也。夫以父立政，不孝也。廢法縱罪，非忠也。臣罪當死。王曰追而不及，不當伏罪。子其治事矣。石奢曰不私其父，非孝子也，不奉主法，非忠臣也。王赦其罪，上惠也，伏誅而死，臣職也。遂不受令，自刎而死。

 

Questions

1. What is the function of 焉 in the third sentence?  To what does it refer?  What is the function of the 之?  To what does it refer?
2. What is the object of the coverb 以?  What is its main verb?  What is the relationship between 以父立政 and不孝也?
3. Explain the parallelisms: (1) 不私其父，非孝子也 and不奉主法，非忠臣也, (2) 王赦其罪，上惠也 and伏誅而死，臣職也.

 

Review

1. If 使 is a pivot verb, what is the pivot?  What is the main verb?
2. What is the difference between 非忠 and 不忠?
3. What is the relationship between 臣 and 罪 in 臣罪當死? What is the relationship between 臣罪 and 當死?  Explain.
4. What part of speech is the phrase不私其父 in不私其父非孝子也?

 

 

[Dani_man]

Thanks for putting this earlier, managed to find the timeslot to go through it nice texts. Again, I like going through the questions, nice refresh. 

First text

15Q1 - mmm I was taught that it’s a fusion of 于之, anyhow it refers to 濮水

15Q2  死 describes the tortoise when it is dead. So, I read it as a subject. The object of 為 is 留骨. 留 modifies 骨, which reads as “remaining bones”.

15R1以 is a coverb in the first line of the story.  What is its object?  What is the main verb? Object is 境內, verb is 累 “to burden”.

15R2 It functons as “but”, to contrast it with the previous sentence where the tortoise was just a decoration.

15R3 Can mean “GO! I’m going to put my tail in the mud”.

 

Second Text

Questions

16Q1 - I think it means that he binded himself to the incident, or in other words, he confessed right away that he released his father. As for 使人言之王曰 - The 之 will make sense to me if it means "to go". “He sent people to go to the king and say…”

16Q2 The object is the father, and the verb is 立政, to exercise governance (or to use it against the father). This is a topic comment - doing it so, will be considered not filial.

16Q3 - The first parallelism demonstrates that either choice that Shi Shi would have taken would be against some principles in one way or another. Arresting the father is against filial peity, releasing a criminal is against the faithfulness that is expected from a servant.

Second parallelism - ShiShe justifies his suicide by showing that this is a noble duty - just as the ruler is virtuous by showing kindness, his virtue will be kept if he kills himself, as it will be an action that will exemplify his relentless loyalty.

 

16R1 - If my answer in 16Q1 is right, then 之 is the main verb, to go,

16R2 非忠 -perhaps it means “wrong loyalty” here? Since he was loyal to his father and not his ruler?

16R3 - You could also write 臣之罪 - the crime of the servant worth death. 當 is the verb here.

16R4 - 不私其父 is a statement in a topic comment construction

 

Cheers!

[somethingfunny]

15Q1:  I agree, I think this must be a typo in the book.  I see that 焉 can be used in place of 安 but here, as a locative pronoun, its surely just 于之.  Why is it that it would refer to 濮水 rather than to 庄子 himself?  Why is it "went to there" rather than "went to him"?

 

15Q2:  I'm afraid I'm not good with these ideas of 'relationships' between words.  I'd take 死 in this case to refer to the tortoise's death, rather than the dead tortoise itself.  Also, I'd take 骨 to be the object of 为 and 留 to mean something like the verb "to leave behind".  I'd take the whole meaning to be, "was it better for the tortoise to die in order to leave behind his bones so that they may be honoured..."

 

15R1:  Agree with Dani_man

 

15R2:  I think here the point he is trying to make with the 而 is that the tortoise lives just so that  it can drag its tail in the mud.  As opposed to the previous choice where the tortoise died and then had its bones interred, rather than dying for the purpose of having its bones interred.  For the second choice he's emphasising that it's the tail dragging, not the living, thats the main attraction.

 

15R3:  Agree with Dani_man, I usually read this as "about to".

 

One more thing, in his notes Fuller comments that 死已三千歲矣 likely means that the tortoise has been dead for 3,000 years, rather than the tortoise was 3,000 years old when it died.  I'm not sure I agree with this is as, rhetorically, the story is more powerful if the tortoise has already had a long life.

 

I'll be back later with Lesson 16.

[somethingfunny]

16Q1: This is a tricky one.  I think the phrase 自系焉 means "imprisoned himself" or "turned himself in".  But I'm not sure what the 焉 is doing here.  Also, I'm not sure about 之 meaning "to go" as the order 使人之王曰 would make more sense in that case.  

 

16Q2:  Agree with Dani_man

 

16Q3:  Agree with Dani_man, although I do feel that there is a logical contradiction in the second parallelism.  He's saying that the ruler is virtuous for forgiving him, so he will be loyal by killing himself, but given that the ruler has just absolved him, suicide is kind of going against the rulers wishes.  Therefore, his act of suicide would actually be disloyal.  I know none of them would have seen it this way, its just an interesting point.

 

16R1:  I'm going to go with the pivot is 人 and the main verb is 言.  This doesn't solve the 之 question though.

 

16R2:  I'm going to have to go with 非忠 and 不忠 being essentially the same thing here.

 

16R3:  Agree with Dani_man

 

16R4:  Agree with Dani_man

 

I have two questions of my own:

 

When he says 臣罪當死 is he saying that he should be punished by death?  For which crime?  

 

When the king says 追而不及，不當伏罪。子其治事矣 what does he mean?  What does the 追 refer to?

[Dani_man]

15Q1:  I agree, I think this must be a typo in the book.  I see that 焉 can be used in place of 安 but here, as a locative pronoun, its surely just 于之.  Why is it that it would refer to 濮水 rather than to 庄子 himself?  Why is it "went to there" rather than "went to him"?

 

The use of "先" insinuate that the two people were sent to be "there" earlier than Zhuangzi himself. It could work as a locative pronoun, not sure how it can be translated as a person pronoun. 

 

When he says 臣罪當死 is he saying that he should be punished by death?  For which crime?  

 

Yup, the crime was that he released a criminal, which is by itself a punitive deed. 

 

When the king says 追而不及，不當伏罪。子其治事矣 what does he mean?  What does the 追 refer to?

 

The way I read it, the king overlooks the fact that he released his father, by saying that pursuing after the criminal without managing to catch him (追而不及)- this by itself does not deserve punishment (不當伏罪) - and tells him to go back to take care of his duties [and so bring this incident to and end with no punishment whatsoever] (子其治事矣)