Tranlation’s words
谓:Legge’s translation: “meaning”, Eno’s translation: “sense”.
媚:Legge: pay court to; Eno: appeal to; Lau: be obsequious to
灶:Legge: furnance; Eno: the kitchen god; Lau: the kitchen stove
奥: Legge: the south-west corner; Eno: the god of the dark corner; Lau: the south-west corner of the house
Legge translated “问曰”into “asked, saying” . Comparing to “asked” (Eno’s translation) and “said” (Lau’s translation) , Legge translated both words. Wangsun Jia asked a question after “问曰”in this chapter, so it is also understandable if only translate “问曰”into “asked” or “said”.
Legge translated “媚”into “pay court to” . “媚”has several meanings (love or flatter)1 as a verb. Comparing to Eno’s translation (appeal to) , “pay court to” is more close to the original meaning of “媚”. But “pay court to” has been old-fashioned than “appeal to” from 1800.
“灶” has two meanings in Chinese: “kitch… Read all/全文