| 280. | 錐 | 刺 | 股 | another pricked his thigh with an awl. | |
| Chui1 | tz'ŭ4 | ku3 | |||
| Awl | prick | thigh |
Chui is composed of 金 chin metal as radical, and 隹 chui birds as phonetic.
Tz'ŭ is composed of 刀 tao knife as radical, and 朿 tz'ŭ a thorn (not 束 shu to bind as in line 283) as phonetic. It has various extended meanings, such as to blame, to criticise.
Ku is composed of 肉 jou flesh as radical and 殳 shu an obsolete word as phonetic. [This line refers to a famous statesman named 蘇秦 Su Ch'in, who died B.C. 317. It was thus that in his youth he kept himself awake for study.]
| 281. | 彼 | 不 | 教 | They were not taught, | |
| Pi3 | pu1 | chiao4 | |||
| They | not | teach |
Pi see line 273.
Pu see line 5.
Chiao see line 5. [This line well illustrates the absurdity of attempting to deduce fixed rules of grammar from Chinese texts,—an attempt by the way which the Chinese themselves have never been guilty of making. To a European eye, the line can only mean "they did not teach," but to a Chinaman these three characters present three root ideas, the connected sense of which is determined by the logic of the occasion. Cf. lines 5, 17. Similar instances abound; e.g. 父母不孝 fu mu pu hsiao, which taken grammatically can only mean "If a man's father and mother are not filial," but which really means "If a man is not filial towards his father and mother," as proved by the context "what will worship of the gods avail?"]
