How can 盼 refer to black and white?

Question

Analect 3.8 quotes from the Book of Songs, 碩人 - Shuo Ren which is Airs of Wei 57 in Waley's version.   『巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮，素以為絢兮。』 But the last 5 characters do not occur in the Book of Songs as we have it.

Confucius seems to read that quote as saying something about black and white in the woman's eyes or complexion.   And Waley translates the poem in the form we do still have, where he interprets  盼 in the phrase 巧笑倩兮。 美目盼兮。as somehow referring to black and white.  

The Chinese Text Project website indeed finds a phrase in the Shuowen, and then in the Kangxi dictionary associating the character  盼  with 目黑白分明也。But I think that comes from interpretations of the Analects.  I do not see any examples of usage in the Pre-Han and Qin texts on that site, except for Analect 3.8, where  盼 seems to mean that.  Most often it means "hoping," and most often that is hoping for a son.  They do once give 之馬之目盼則為之馬盼 as meaning a horse's eyes, and the horse, are blind.

I know from experience that I may well be missing something on the Chinese Text Project website.  But what is the reason for thinking that 美目盼兮，素以為絢兮 means a woman's eyes are distinctly black and white? It seems to me more natural to associate it with "longing" in, or for, the woman's eyes.

Answer 1

1. This is not a Waley phenomenon. The majority of English translators of Shih-ching (in the absence of 素以為絢兮) follow strictly the preachings of Shuowen Jiezi when interpreting 盼 in 美目盼兮, to varying extents of literality.

Translation
Legge 1871:95	How lovely her eyes, with the black and white so well-defined!
Legge 1876:104	With dark and lucid eyes, showed face beyond compare.
Jennings 1891:83	Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright!
Waley 1937:80	The lovely eyes so black and white.
Karlgren 1950:38	Her beautiful eyes are well-defined black and white.
Pound 1954:28	Clear white, gainst black iris.

Legge and Waley also translated III.8 of The Analects in the same manner. Some other translators of The Analects choose to interpret the quote (in the presence of 素以為絢兮) more liberally, but still do not use the more common verbal meaning 'to look' except Lau 1979. Note even in Lau's interpretation the much derived meaning 'to hope for' is not adopted.

Translation
Lyall 1909	Her lovely eyes, So clear and bright
Soothill 1910:191	Her bewitching eyes shew their colours so clear
Lau 1979	Her beautiful eyes glancing

My take on this matter is that 素以為絢兮 may be a Confucian (in the sense that the dialogue between Confucius and Tzu-hsia that follows it centres on not the quoted poem, but 絢 as a metaphor for 禮) annotation of the preceding verse 美目盼兮; or a piece of yishi (逸詩, lit. lost poem). If the former be the case, the contrast of colour between 素 and 絢 may also help justify interpreting 盼 as 'black and white well defined'. See more of 素以為絢 here. Another weaker (and potentially flawed) justification is that in order for the couplet 巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮 to have matching parts of speech, 盼 should be adjectival.

2. This article, however, unearths several annotations of the phrase of concern that provide a different explanation:

通志堂本《经典释文·毛诗音义》作“盻”，并注“敷苋反，白黑分也。徐又敷谏反，《韩诗》云‘黑色也’，《字林》云‘美目也’，匹间反，又匹苋反。”

阮刻《论语注疏》在原文下有小字注“马曰：‘倩，笑貌；盼，动目貌。”

Apparently, not every source listed above agrees with the Shuowen Jiezi school. Especially striking is the interpretation of Ma Rong, an Eastern Han scholar and a contemporary of Xu Shen. But this was not published until the Qing Dynasty in the Ruan ke annotation, which may weaken the credibility of the quote.

Answer 2

in 論語集解義疏 volume 2, by 何晏 (p108-110 of the pdf), the remark stated:

馬融曰・倩・笑貌・盼・動目貌・絢・文貌也・此上二句在衛風碩人之二章・其下一句逸也

mr 馬 [a scholar in han dynasty] said (馬融曰), . . . “盼” means “the appearance of moving eye [seeing]” (動目貌), . . . the [origin of the] last verse is lost (其下一句逸也)

judging from the question, i think that you’re “lost in translation” 😿 the english translation provided by ctext.org is, imo, misleading.

繪・畫文也・凡畫繪先布衆采・然後以素分其間・以成其文・喻美女雖有倩盼美質・亦須禮以成也

roughly, in drawing, one first lay down the colours (凡畫繪先布衆采), then use white to separate them (然後以素分其間), in order to make the pattern (以成其文—->紋). the metaphor is (喻): thought a pretty woman smiles often and is smart (美女雖有倩盼美質), it’s still need (亦須) good manners (禮) to perfect it (以成也)

therefore, the text in analect 3.8, i would interpreted it as:

子夏問曰：「『巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮，素以為絢兮。』何謂也？」子曰：「繪事後素。」曰：「禮後乎？」子曰：「起予者商也！始可與言詩已矣。」

子夏 didn’t understand the meaning of the three verses, he asked confucius “what does it mean” (子夏問曰：「『巧笑倩兮，美目盼兮，素以為絢兮。』何謂也？」)

confucius answered with a metaphor [of drawing, that in drawing, lay down colours first, then apply white colour] (子曰：「繪事後素。」)

子夏 get the meaning of this metaphor immediately, said “[so, it’s] good manners (禮) [is what we need] afterwards? (後乎)

confucius only answered with a metaphor of drawing; however, 子夏 was smart enough to understand “white” imply “good manners” (以素喻禮). so confucius exclaimed that “he can discuss with him about the book of odes” (子曰：「起予者商也！始可與言詩已矣。」)

have fun :)