I want to get your idea.

Do you need help parsing the grammar, or are you looking for our philosophy?

But what was the original posting looking for? Help understanding the quote? Editing a translation? Looking for us to proofread? What?

I assume you're a Chinese, since what you posted here is a famous sentence in Yi Ching, a book of ancient China. It's oroginal version:???,???????!

I'm never quite sure that "gentleman" is a satisfactory translation, in versions of Chinese philosophical texts. It carries too much modern Western baggage.

MrP

I've yet to see a satisfactory translation of ??. I think gentleman is the explanation you find in free online Chinese-English dictionaries.

What's the literal meaning, Julie? (And how is it pronounced?)

MrP

in mandarin the word reads: junzi. In English maybe something like: jee-un-ds

a man who is refined, self-conscious and with profound understanding of life and conducting himself appropriately, whatever that means, and often a member of cultural elites, not necessarily a social elite, is regarded as a JUNZI (jee-un-ds).

i agree, the term 'gentleman' is somewhat a compromise. but

Thank you, Pchuang! That's a very clear picture.

I'm not sure there is a word for it in English; perhaps because we have so little of the thing itself. Perhaps we should simply use Junzi.

MrP

by the way, the english translation of the sentence is not correct. no wonder it does not make much sense. even the chinese themselves often misunderstand the meaning of the verse.

sure, you always have different interpretation of almost everything. yet this verse is not so hard to understand.

what it really means is :"since the heaven (a spiritual reference rather than a physic