If the people conversing with each other are of approximately the same status and age, they most often use the following titles in dialogue:
a) when referring to themselves, they do not use the pronoun "I," but refer to themselves by name;
b) when addressing the interlocutor, they use the polite 先生 xiān shēng "predecessor" (in this case, this expression should not be taken literally) or 子 zǐ "wisest," etc.
In this lesson, a certain Song Keng, when referring to himself, constantly uses personal pronouns, demonstratively emphasizing that he has his own view of things. Mencius, on the contrary, calls him "predecessor" and calls himself Ke, invariably demonstrating his refined politeness. This is very important to him, because while he is formally respectful of Song Keng, he disagrees with him on the substance of the matter under discussion.
In archaic and pre-classical languages, an inverted indirect object can occupy only one position—before the predicate, and always in prepositional form.
In the early classical language, a new method of inverting the indirect object appears, which can be placed before the subject. In this case, the original position of such an object is occupied by the function word 焉 yān (= 於之 yú zhī).
An inverted indirect object can appear before a subject in a prepositional form: 於齊國之士吾必以仲子為巨擘焉 yú qí guó zhī shì wú bì yǐ zhòng zǐ wéi jù bò yān “Among the men of the kingdom of Qi, I will certainly give Zhongzi the palm” (direct word order: 吾必以仲子為巨擘於齊國之士 wú bì yǐ zhòng zǐ wéi jù bò yú qí guó zhī shì).
But the preposition 於 yú before the inverted object can be omitted: 晉國天下莫強焉 jìn guó tiān xià mò qiáng yān "Under Heaven there is no kingdom stronger than Jin" (direct word order: 天下莫強於晉國 tiān xià mò qiáng yú jìn guó).
Early Classical Language 264
The same is observed in the impersonal sentence: 於此有人焉 yú cǐ yǒu rén yān "There is a man here" (direct word order: 有人於此 yǒu rén yú cǐ).
萬取千焉,千取百焉 wàn qǔ qiān yān, qiān qǔ băi yān "From ten thousand we take a thousand, from a thousand we take a hundred" (direct word order: 取千於萬,取百於千 qǔ qiān yú wàn, qǔ băi yú qiān).
Thus, finding the word 焉 yān at the end of a sentence, we have reason to assume an inversion of the indirect object, which should be looked for at the beginning of the sentence. Exceptions are those cases where 焉 yān duplicates the object of the preceding sentence, for example: 上有好者,下必有甚焉者 shàng yǒu hào zhě, xià bì yǒu shèn yān zhě "[If] among those at the top there are those who love something, then among those at the bottom there will certainly be those who surpass them in it!"
In archaic and pre-classical languages, the direct object could be inverted, occupying a position only before the predicate (9.2; 21.3). In classical languages, a new method of inverting the direct object, moving it to a position before the subject, became widespread. This inverted direct object requires its duplication with the demonstrative pronoun 之 zhī, which is placed in the place of the direct object in normal word order: 其聞之者吾殺之矣 qí wén zhī zhě wú shā zhī yǐ "Whoever finds out about this, I will execute!" (normal word order: 吾殺其聞之者矣 wú shā qí wén zhī zhě yǐ "I will execute whoever finds out about this!").
In a negative sentence, the demonstrative pronoun 之 zhī, which duplicates the forward direct object, is generally placed before the predicate after the negation:
諸侯之禮吾未之學矣 zhū hóu zhī lǐ wú wèi zhī xué yǐ "I have never studied the ritual of the king of the kingdom" (usual word order: 吾未學諸侯之禮矣 wú wèi xué zhū hóu zhī lǐ yǐ).
The second case in which the use of the pronoun 其 qí as the subject of an action is possible is associated with an included complement clause.
If the complement to the predicate is expressed by a whole sentence, then the subject of this included sentence can be the pronoun 其 qí: 吾不忍其觳觫 wú bù rěn qí hú sù "I can't stand the way he trembles" (using the included sentence 其觳觫 qí hú sù "he trembles" as an independent one is impossible).
我將言其不利也 wǒ jiāng yán qí bù lì yě "I will say that it is not profitable" (just as you can't simply 其不 利也 qí bù lì yě "it is not profitable").
This negation indicates that the action it refers to did not take place in the past:
未有仁而遺其親者也 wèi yǒu rén ér yí qí qīn zhě yě "There has never been a time when a person was humane but abandoned his loved ones to their fate."
In dialogue, 未 wèi can be used as a short negative answer to a question: 曰未也 yuē wèi yě "He answered: 'No'."
The future tense marker 將 jiāng can be used as a predicative with the meaning "to gather," "to intend." We find an example of this in Lesson 35:
宋牼將之楚 sòng kēng jiāng zhī chǔ "Song Keng was planning to set out for Chu."
This adverb indicates that the action expressed by the predicate is performed mutually by several persons or objects. Such an action usually has no direct object: 獸相食 shòu xiāng shí "Animals eat each other."
父子不相見 fù zǐ bù xiāng jiàn "Fathers and children are deprived of the opportunity to see each other."
Furthermore, the adverb 相 xiāng means "equally", "equally": 為我作君臣相悦之樂 wèi wǒ zuò jūn chén xiāng yuè zhī yuè "Compose music for me that will equally delight the ears of both ruler and subject."
During the Zhang Kuo era, the power of the Zhou king ceased to be a social reality. The Zhuhou kingdoms became completely isolated. An external manifestation of this process was, among other things, the majority of the rulers of the kingdoms at this time taking the title of king, which fundamentally contradicted the original concept of supreme power: "one sun in the sky, one king under heaven."
This text speaks of the kings of the states of Chu and Qin—the largest states of the Zhang Kuo era.
Confucians consistently opposed "advantage" as an argument justifying certain actions of a ruler. The treatise "Mencius" begins with a rebuke from this philosopher to the ruler of the Wei (Liang) state, who asked him: "What benefit can you bring to our state?" The sovereign should think of humanity and justice, not profit, asserts Mencius.
A distinctive feature of Confucian theory was that its proponents transferred concepts associated with relationships between relatives to the realm of public policy. They imagined the state as an extended family, with its ruler likened to the head of the family. Therefore, for the Confucian, the relationship between the sovereign and his subjects was essentially a modification of the ties that bound father and son, or elder brother to younger brother.