Only women and small people are difficult to raise also What does this sentence mean

The Analects of Confucius - Yang Shou recorded: "Zi said: only the woman and the small man is difficult to raise, close to it is not grandchildren, far from it is resentment." If literally understood, Confucius will be women and small people side by side, saying that both "difficult to raise", which is also interpreted by later generations of the meaning of the most, and therefore the Analects of this statement has become a lot of people accused of Confucius has contempt for women's ideas within. Combined with the later Confucianism has always advocated "male superiority and female inferiority", Confucius contempt for women seems to be confirmed.

But Confucius lived more than 2,000 years ago, and the language environment at that time was still very different from that of later generations. The word "woman" as understood nowadays is a general term that refers to all women, but in fact, in the ancient Chinese language, there is also a

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Bing Xing, a master of Confucianism in the Northern Song Dynasty, once commented on this sentence in the Analects of Confucius, saying, "This chapter says that women and small people have no proper nature and are difficult to raise. Therefore, it is difficult to raise, because of its proximity to the more not Sun Shun, alienated from the good resentment. This is a woman, to cite the majority of ears. If they are endowed with a virtuous nature, such as Wenmu, then it is not a discussion." (This sentence means: Confucius said the woman does not mean that all women, in fact, there are women in the endowment of the virtuous

Southern Song Dynasty Confucian scholar Zhu Xi explains more detailed, said "women" refers to "concubine", is a servant underlings. Later Confucians in order to avoid again on the understanding of the bias, on the basis of Zhu Xi interpretation, the words of Confucius expanded a bit, changed to "only concubine of the woman and the left and right of the villain, service labor in the up and down of the support also, and the support of the difficult to carry on.

In fact, Confucius lost his father at the age of 3, and has been dependent on his mother since he was a child, and his feelings for his mother are very deep, and he also pays great attention to filial piety, such as "parents in, not far away from the tour, the tour will be a party," "parents only their illnesses worry about," and so on, which all represent the Confucius Parental filial piety advocate, if "only women and small people are difficult to raise also" in the "women" is a general term, Confucius is not even his own mother a piece of criticism, which is obviously with Confucius advocate filial piety contradiction. Therefore, the "woman" in this sentence is actually a term of endearment.

So what does it mean to say that "only women and small people are hard to raise"?

Confucius said this sentence is in fact the ancient Chinese parabolic structure, the central word is "woman", "with the small man" is the definite article (with means not "and", but "like"). (with does not mean "and", but "like"), the whole sentence means: like a small person like a woman without virtue, in order to emphasize the tone, Confucius in front of the word "only", which translates as: only this kind of like a small person like a woman without virtue is difficult to raise the object. Why is it difficult to raise? Confucius explained in the second half of the sentence that if they were close to them, they would be insolent, and if they were distant, they would be resentful. The later generations also understood "difficult to raise" as difficult to get along with.