Ma Zhibin, History Room of People's Education Publishing House.
The history of China, a textbook for nine-year compulsory junior high schools compiled by the History Department of People's Education Publishing House, quoted Confucius on page 59 of the first volume: "In a threesome, there must be a teacher." The footnote says, "y ā n is a modal particle. The meaning of this sentence is: three people walk together, and there must be my teacher among them. "
Two teachers, Yang Mankang and Li Shukun, from Zhang Guo Middle School in Sichuan Province, published a short article entitled "When we have a threesome, we must learn from each other" in the 7th issue of History Teaching Reference for Middle Schools in 2000, criticizing the textbook of People's Education Publishing House for its improper interpretation of the above Confucius language, because it violated the principle of exegetics. According to exegetics, the translation of ancient Chinese into modern Chinese must conform to the language environment at that time, and it should have both the viewpoint of development and the viewpoint of dating, and it should also be linked with language facts, consistent with the context, pay attention to seeking truth from facts and achieve' faithfulness and elegance'. Then, the two teachers "scrutinized more strictly with the aforementioned principles" and "compared with the original text" found that the definitions of "three people", "line" and "my teacher" were inaccurate. According to them, "'three people' definitely does not mean' three people', but the number is empty and should be understood as' many people'. The original meaning of' go' is' go', but it should be extended to' together' here. " My teacher "does not mean that" my teacher "is a common conative usage in ancient Chinese, which should be interpreted as" you can be my teacher ". So the full text should be interpreted as:' When many people are together, there must be someone who can be my teacher. Their conclusion is that the notes in the PEP textbook "undoubtedly make the mistake of reading the text to make sense." They also seriously pointed out: "This kind of inaccurate labeling is not allowed in middle school textbooks, because it is easy for inexperienced middle school students to walk into the maze." (See "History Teaching Reference for Middle Schools", No.7, 2000, 4 1 page)
I don't know anything about exegetics, but I agree with the two teachers that translation should be based on "the language environment at that time", "pay attention to seeking truth from facts" and achieve "faithfulness and elegance" according to the language environment in which Confucius spoke at that time. I think the opinions of the two teachers are debatable. Below, according to the three places that two teachers pointed out that the so-called "literal meaning is not correct"-"three people", "line" and "my teacher", we will discuss them one by one.
When the two teachers say "three people", they definitely don't mean "three people", but the number of people is useless and should be understood as "many people". Judging from what Confucius said at that time, he tried his best to educate students to be modest and take the initiative to ask for advice. There are two people left in the "three people" besides themselves. "Two" is the smallest complex number. Just think, asking for advice between "two people" or between "many people" with more than two people can better reflect the original intention of Confucius' speech? Obviously the former-"two people". In ancient Chinese, "empty counting" is indeed a universal phenomenon, but universal phenomenon does not mean inevitable phenomenon. In fact, there are many practical phenomena of numbers in ancient Chinese. For example, the ancient couplet of "plum blossom five in snow, bamboo leaves three in frost field", "five" and "three" are all practical numbers. Does my idea hold water? With the feeling of serious verification, I consulted two books and looked for the notes of the ancients. One is Annotation on Four Vernacular Books published by Changchun Ancient Books Publishing House. The note says: "people who study should find their own teachers." Not far, not much, for example, if three people leave, someone will definitely be my husband. " The other is The Complete Book of Four Books compiled by Hu Guang, a Korean, who was edited by the editorial department of The Collection of Confucius Cultures and published by Shandong Friendship Bookstore. The book explains: "Three people walk together. One is me, and the other is good and evil, then I will change from evil to good, and both of them are my teachers. " He also said, "Shuangfeng Rao said: This old lady talks about one good and one evil, so that she can see that both good and evil are my teachers, or both are good, so she should follow suit; If both are evil, then we must change them, that is, we must cooperate with one person and have me as a teacher. This is between the lines. Nanxuan Zhang Shiyun: A person's body is good or bad, and he is not my teacher. " After reading these two annotations, I am glad that I can coincide with the ancients.
The two teachers said: "The original meaning of' going' is' going', but it should be extended to' being together' here." And what is the basis of "extension"? The two teachers didn't say. "Line" is composed of the words "easy" and "knot". "Zhengzitong" said: "The left step is clumsy, the right step is clumsy, and it is a line. All walkers must wait first, then they will follow. " What I'm talking about here is the original intention of "line" There are 14 meanings under the word "Xing xíg" in Ci Hai: (1) Go. (2) flow; Spread. (3) go; Leave. (4) engaged in. 5] What did you do? [6] Buddhist terminology. The meaning of "artificial" and "migration". Buddhist scriptures refer to the method of karma or impermanent migration as once feasible "behavior" As a contemporary official position. (9) experience. ⑽ Yes, soon. ⑾ Music. ⑿ A genre of ancient poetry. [13] packaging. [14] A Chinese font. See "Running script". When you think about it, these meanings are all derived from the original meaning of "line". However, there is no meaning of "together". According to the ancient annotation quoted above, the word "row" is best translated as "walk". Fiction out of thin air lacks the spirit of seeking truth from facts.
Two teachers said: "My teacher" does not mean that "my teacher" is a common conative usage in ancient Chinese ... The whole sentence should be interpreted as: "Many people are together, and one of them must be my teacher." In fact, there is not much contradiction between these two explanations, and there is no danger of "easily letting inexperienced middle school students into the maze". If it is called truth, the two gentlemen said that "one of them must be my teacher", and the "one" here is misinterpreted. Because Confucius meant "three people walk together." First, me too. If I break two people, one is good and the other is evil, then I will turn evil into good, so that both of them are my teachers. "If the two teachers still think impassability, you can look at the Analects of Confucius and establish a person. In this article, Confucius said: "See the sage Si Qi Yan, see the sage and introspect." This sentence is just a wonderful annotation of "three people, there must be a teacher" "It seems that the attention of the two teachers has set up a maze for your own students and readers.
By the way, after writing this article, I went to the bookstore to read The Four Books and Five Classics of the Vernacular Chinese edited by Li Jin, among which The Analects of Confucius was edited by Zhang Wenxue. The book was published by Changchun Publishing House in August, 1992. The book says, "When three people walk together, there must be a teacher." Its explanation is basically the same as that in the textbook of People's Education Edition.