Grammar

宋有狙公者，愛狙，養之成群。能解狙公之意，狙亦得公之心。損其家口，充狙之欲。俄而匱焉，將限其食，恐眾狙之不馴於己也。先誑之曰：“與若芧，朝三而暮四足乎？”眾狙皆起而怒。俄而曰：“與若芧，朝四暮三足乎？”眾狙皆伏而喜。

Sòng yǒu jū gōng zhě, ài jū, yǎng zhī chéng qún. Néng jiě jū gōng zhī yì, jū yì de gōng zhī xīn. Sǔn qí jiā kǒu, chōng jū zhī yù. É ér kuì yān, jiāng xiàn qí shí, kǒng zhòng jū zhī bù xún yú jǐ yě. Xiān kuáng zhī yuē: "Yǔ ruò xù, zhāo sān ér mù sì zú hū? " Zhòng jū jiē qǐ ér nù. É ér yuē:"Yǔ ruò xù, zháo sì mù sān zú hū? " Zhòng jū jiē fú ér xǐ.

之 in this lesson

• There are 6 occurrences of 之。 Pay attention to the specific use of 之 in the context:

養之成群    to raise the monkeys in group

先誑之曰    to deceive them (the monkeys) first and say...

In the above two cases, 之 refers to the monkeys.

 

解狙公之意  to understand the monkey lover's thoughts 

得公之心    to win the monkey lover's heart

充狙之欲    to satisfy monkeys' desire

狙之不馴    monkeys' disobedience

In the above four cases, 之 is uses as  possessive pronouns.

The reversed order of V+O

• 與若芧=若與芧 if (I) give you the chestnuts...

The usage of 而

• 而 is a conjunction word which combines two clauses before and after. The use of 而 is just to meet the rhythm of the sentence and it does not carry lexical meanings in this context.

朝三而暮四   three in the morning and four in the evening

伏而喜       to lay down on the ground and be happy

 

Note that 而 in 俄而匱焉 (the food) became insufficient before long is not a conjunction word. It is part of the word 俄而 (before long).