Fuller's ILC Chapters 19 (韓非子) and 20 (孟子)

[somethingfunny]

OK, here are some more lessons for you.  Come on.  You know you want to.  Look, its Han Feizi!  And our old friend Mencius...

 

19 和氏之璧 （韓非子）

 

楚人和氏得玉璞楚山中，奉而獻之厲王，厲王使玉人相之，玉人曰：「石也。」王以和為誑，而刖其左足。及厲王薨，武王即位，和又奉其璞而獻之武王，武王使玉人相之，又曰「石也」，王又以和為誑，而刖其右足。武王薨，文王即位，和乃抱其璞而哭於楚山之下，三日三夜，泣盡而繼之以血。王聞之，使人問其故，曰：「天下之刖者多矣，子奚哭之悲也？」和曰：「吾非悲刖也，悲夫寶玉而題之以石，貞士而名之以誑，此吾所以悲也。」王乃使玉人理其璞而得寶焉，遂命曰：「和氏之璧。」

 

Questions

1. What is the function of the 之 in 哭之悲?
2. Why does the author write 吾非悲刖也 rather than 吾不悲刖也?  Explain the difference.  What is the function of the 也?

 

Review

1. What is the significance of reversing the order of coverbs and main verbs in: 繼之以血, 題之以石 and 名之以誑.
2. What is the relationship between 此 and 吾所以悲也 in 此吾所以悲也?  Explain.
3. What is the function of the 焉 in 得寶焉?

 

20 施仁政 （孟子）

 

梁惠王曰：「晉國，天下莫強焉，叟之所知也。及寡人之身，東敗於齊，長子死焉；西喪地於秦七百里；南辱於楚。寡人恥之，願比死者一洒之，如之何則可？」孟子對曰：「地方百里而可以王。王如施仁政於民，省刑罰，薄稅斂，深耕易耨。壯者以暇日修其孝悌忠信，入以事其父兄，出以事其長上，可使制梃以撻秦楚之堅甲利兵矣。彼奪其民時，使不得耕耨以養其父母，父母凍餓，兄弟妻子離散。彼陷溺其民，王往而征之，夫誰與王敵？故曰：『仁者無敵。』王請勿疑！」

 

Questions

1. Explain Meng Zi's argument:  what is the relationship between military might and Confucian governing as a true king?  Why is it true, according to Meng Zi, that 仁者無敵?
2. Note the frequent use of 以 as a connector between verbs in this passage: 

 

入以事其父兄

出以事其長上

可使制梃以撻秦楚之堅甲利兵矣

使不得耕耨以養其父母

 

In each case, explain what the object of the coverb is and why the sentence is structure in this manner.

 

Review

1. What is the syntactic role of 及 in 及寡人之身?
2. Explain the use of the negative character 勿 in 王請勿疑.

[somethingfunny]

This first lesson is actually pretty straightforward, so I highly recommend you take a look - it won't take you long.

 

19Q1:  I'm going to go with nominalising.  It changes "Why are you crying?" to "What is the sadness that makes you cry?"

 

19Q2:  吾不悲刖也 would be "I am not sad because my feet have been chopped off..." where as 吾非悲刖也 is more "I am sad, not because my feet have been chopped off, but rather..."  This kind of negation was covered a lot in Rouzer.  I feel like the 也 here is part of the grammatical structure of the parallel lines, but I'm not 100%.

 

19R1:  I believe this emphasizes the object, compare: 以石題之 ("to take it as stone and evaluate it") 題之以石 ("to evaluate it as stone").  The other two would be something like "to cry continuously until he cried blood" and "to label him as a fraud".

 

19R2:  Topic - comment.  I feel that if this is topic - comment, then it's obvious why.  If it's not topic comment, then I have no idea.

 

19R3:  焉＝于之 "from it".

[somethingfunny]

I'm starting to get a little worried now that I'm just talking to myself.  Anyway, there's only two more posts (four more lessons) after this one, so I'll persevere and then see if we can't look at something a little more appealing...

 

20Q1:  I feel like the text is a little unclear in the cause-effect relationships it's trying to illustrate.  I follow Meng Zi's argument as:  The rulers of Qin and Chu are not kind to their own people, so if you (Liang Hui Wang) rule with 仁, then when you go to attack Qin and Chu, no-one will be able to compete with you.  This is similar to what we've heard before about ruling with 仁 attracting people in poorly governed states to your own.  However, I'm not sure exactly how to answer Fuller's question about the relationship between military might and Confucian governing.  I guess he's saying the armies of those states ruled through 仁 are more powerful than those ruled through fear and suppression, although he stops short of going into the details of this.

 

20Q2:  I believe the object comes at the end of each phrase:

 

入以事其父兄

出以事其長上

可使制梃以撻秦楚之堅甲利兵矣

使不得耕耨以養其父母

 

I can only assume the point of this is to emphasise the object.

 

20R1:  到?

 

20R2:  Hmm, tricky question.  These negatives really are quite disgusting some times.  I'm going to hazard a guess and say that it unpacks like this:

 

王請勿疑

王請毋之疑

王請毋疑之

King, please do not question it.

 

Any thoughts??

[Dani_man]

For the second text - I agree with what you wrote above. Mencious indeed say that strength of rulership will rise not from military power or land, but by cultivating a society based on Confucian values. The social/economical stability and harmony will guarantee the support of the people. 

 

As for 20R1, what did you mean with 到? "To the point that..."?

[somethingfunny]

No, I took it more to mean "Arriving at the point (in time) where I am ruler... all the bad things that have happened etc."

[JannR]

On 3/22/2016 at 2:03 AM, somethingfunny said:

19Q1

 

I like your interpretation. I was thinking that it might be a reversal of adverb + verb-object but there are no examples of this in earlier chapters of the book. This would be the sort of thing he'd emphasize, as he does with the reversal of the order of coverbs and main verbs. That being said, Watson translates this line as "Why do you weep so piteously over it?"

 

Thanks for your series of posts on Fuller! 

[somethingfunny]

天下之刖者多矣，子奚哭之悲也

 

Interesting thoughts JannR!  Watson's translation does make a lot of sense - "This punishment is so widespread, why do you weep so piteously (悲) (over this particular case)?"

 

It's been a while since I thought about this and I'd need to go back and look at some of my books which I don't have on me at the moment.  I'll keep it in mind though - just glad to see someone making use of these posts!