Classical Chinese/Lesson 2

Text

性惡 1: 人之性惡，其善者偽也。
今人之性，生而有好利焉，順是，故爭奪生而辭讓亡焉；
生而有疾惡焉，順是，故殘賊生而忠信亡焉；
生而有耳目之欲，有好聲色焉，順是，故淫亂生而禮義文理亡焉。
然則從人之性，順人之情，必出於爭奪，合於犯分亂理，而歸於暴。
故必將有師法之化，禮義之道，然後出於辭讓，合於文理，而歸於治。
用此觀之，人之性惡明矣，其善者偽也。

— 荀子 (Xunzi).

Vocab & Translation

• 人之性惡，其善者偽也。- Human nature is evil, all that is good about human nature is man-made (i.e. not really human nature).
  • 人 (ren2) - person, people
  • 之 (zhī) - possessive particle similar to modern Chinese 的 (it roughly corresponds to English ending ´s), go to, it
  • 性 (xìng) - nature
  • 惡 (è) - evil
  • 其 (qí) - his/her/theirs
  • 善 (shàn) - good
  • 者 (zhě) - that which/those who/he who
  • 偽 (wěi) - man-made
  • 也 (yě) - see grammar
• 今人之性，生而有好利焉，順是，故爭奪生而辭讓亡焉； - [The common person's nature,] following life and compassion, follows old disputes and ceases life, yet ignores the following of death. (Now it is human nature for one to be born with fondness of profit, following this leads to contention and strife arising while sense of modesty and yielding disappears.)
  • 今 - now
  • 有 - to have
  • 好 - goodwill, fond
  • 利 - profit
  • 焉 - thereupon
  • 順 - to go along
  • 是 - indeed, this
  • 故 - ancient, hence
  • 爭 - dispute
  • 奪 - to covet by force
  • 生 - life
  • 而 - yet
  • 辭 - dismiss, modesty
  • 讓 - the permittance of, yielding
  • 亡 - death
  • 焉 - thereupon
• 生而有疾惡焉，順是，故殘賊生而忠信亡焉；- One is born with feelings of envy and hate, following these leads to banditry and theft arising while loyalty and trustworthiness disappears.
  • 疾 - sickness
  • 惡 - wickedness
  • 殘 - spoiled
  • 賊 - thieved of
  • 忠 - devotion, loyalty
  • 信 - belief, trust

Grammar Notes

English sentence of the type: A is B (A was B, etc.), where A and B are nouns, is rendered in Classical Chinese this way: AB也

Note that 也 (yě) is a particle, not a verb like and English is. (Were it verb, it would have been placed between A and B).

Construction «AB也» is used if A is always B in any case. So, for example, you can say «I am a man» — «吾人也», but not «I'm a minister», because it´s something that can be taken from you.

In this case the verb 為 (wéi) is used, and it is a verb, not a particle (therefore it´s put between two nouns, line in English): A為B

For example, «吾為臣» — «I´m a minister».

Note that 為 (wéi) doesn´t change its forms like English verb does (am, is, are, be).