兄弟｜bROTHERS
若命運早注定，人活著已精彩，真心兄弟定在。
If one’s fate is destined and one lives wonderfully, the real brothers must be around.
《論語》的第十二書《顏淵》——第五章：
“The Analects”*₁, Book 12 – Chapter 5 (original written in Classical Chinese):
司馬牛憂曰：「人皆有兄弟，我獨亡。」
子夏曰：「商聞之矣：[死₁][生₂]有[命₃]，[富₄][貴₅]在[天₆]。君子[敬₇]而無[失₈]，與人[恭₉]而有[禮₁₀]。四海之內，皆兄弟也。君子何患乎無兄弟也？」
Sima Niu*₂ worriedly said: “All other people have bROTHERS, just I don’t.”
Zi Xia*₃ said: “I have heard: [dEATH₁] and [lIFE₂] are [fATED₃], [wEALTH₄] and [hONOR₅] depend on [pROVIDENCE₆]. A rEAL man is [dEDICATED₇] to work without making [mISTAKES₈], [rESPECTS₉] others and is [cOURTEOUS₁₀]. Within the Four Seas*₄, all are brothers. Should a real man worry about having no brothers?”
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nOTES:
*₁: “The Analects” or “Analects of Confucius” – collected sayings and thoughts of great philosopher Confucius; it is one of the important canonical Confucian literature. Traditionally people believe that “The Analects” was written by disciples or followers of Confucius during the late Warring States period (475-221 BC) and its final revision was completed during the Emperor Cheng period (33-7 BC) in late Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-9).
*₂: Sima Niu (? -481 BC), also called Sima Geng (司馬耕), was one of the disciples of Confucius.
*₃: Bu Shang (BC 507–420) also known as Zi Xia was an important and a prominent disciple of Confucius. He was a deep researcher of “Book of Poetry” and the “I Ching”, also founded his own school in Wei dynasty during Warring States period ( BC 475-221).
*₄: The “Four seas” were four waterbodies and metaphorically made up as the boundaries in the ancient China; every cardinal direction has one sea. The East sea is the East China Sea, the South Sea is the South China Sea, the West Sea is Qinghai Lake and the North Sea is Lake Baikal. The term of “Within the four seas” is commonly used in Chinese literature and poetry, which means “everywhere within the country”.