Timeline for Why is 說 translated as "pleasant" in Confucius's Analects?
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9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 7, 2015 at 1:10 | comment | added | Yang | A more modern example (which is not technically 假借字) - mistakes like these can happen if you interpret non-Mandarin writing forms with Mandarin meaning. The famous saying 愛拼才會贏 comes from a modern Hokkien song, where 愛 actually means 需要, not 喜愛。 Totally different meaning! | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 21:01 | comment | added | Master Sparkles | Actually, that sort of falls short of being a complete equivalency. However 《抗志》 says:「且又朝夕受酒脯及祭膰之賜，衣食已優，意氣已定，...」, where I don't think it can plausibly mean "good" instead of "餘". Since the 餘 character does occur in the 荀子 example it's not quite the same as 說/悅. | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 20:55 | comment | added | Master Sparkles | @Ringil - 《四書章句集注》:「優，有餘力也。仕與學理同而事異，故當其事者，必先有以盡其事，而後可及其餘。」All the classical commentaries offer similar glosses. Here's an example from 《荀子》:「故魚鱉優多，而百姓有餘用也。」. | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 19:27 | comment | added | Ringil | Do you have a source for this? All the modern translations/explanations say that it's you1 and means to do well at learning. | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 18:08 | comment | added | Claw | @ZbigniewAdamowicz By stand-in, he means it's a phonetic loan (假借字). 說 and 悦 had very similar pronunciations in Old Chinese (reconstructed as *l̥ot vs. *lot, respectively), so before the 悦 character was invented, 說 was often used for both meanings. | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 12:57 | comment | added | Zbigniew Adamowicz | what"s a stand-in word? | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 0:59 | comment | added | Master Sparkles | Not now - but in that sentence from 論語 優 means 餘. Can be hard to tell because it makes sense the other way as well. Wonder how many people accidentally went into government because they were good students, only to discover that they had the wrong idea the whole time.;) | |
| Jun 5, 2015 at 0:39 | comment | added | Ringil | What, I'm pretty sure 優 is not the same as 餘. That word in that saying is pronounced you1... | |
| Jun 4, 2015 at 23:30 | history | answered | Master Sparkles | CC BY-SA 3.0 |