Grammar

楚人有鬻盾與矛者，譽之曰：“吾楯之堅，物莫能陷也。”又譽其矛曰：“吾矛之利，于物無不陷也。”或曰：“以子之矛，陷子之盾，何如?”其人弗能應也。夫不可陷之盾，與無不陷之矛，不可同世而立。

Chǔ rén yǒu yù dùn yǔ máo zhě, yù zhī yuē: "wú dǔn zhī jiān, wù mò néng xiàn yě. " Yòu yù qí máo yuē: "wú máo zhī lì, yú wù wú bù xiàn yě. " Huò yuē: "yǐ zǐ zhī máo, xiàn zǐ zhī dùn, hé rú?" Qí rén fú néng yìng yě. Fū bù kě xiàn zhī dùn, yǔ wú bù xiàn zhī máo, bù kě tóng shì ér lì.

Nominalizer 者

有……者,as is explained in Lesson 3, is a nominalizer (NOM) which makes the phrase 鬻盾與矛者 a noun phrase 'the person who sells the spear and shield.'

Negation words 莫、不、弗、無

There are four negation words in this lesson: 莫、不、弗 and 無.

莫 It is a negative indefinite pronoun to indicate 'nobody', 'nothing', etc. 物莫能陷 Nothing can stab it through. In other context, it can be interpreted as 'do not do...'

不 A common negation word

弗 In this lesson 弗能 equals to 不能. The difference between 不 and 弗 is that 不 can negate both verbs and adjective, while 弗 can negate verbs only.

無 It was really two separate but related negations. The first was the opposite of the existential verb 有 [you3] "there is": 無木 [wu2 mu4] "there is no tree." The second was used to form negative commands: 無來 [wu2 lai2] "do not come." In this lesson, it is used together with another negation word 不, forming 無不 indicating 'there is nothing that ... not' or 'all without exception'.

Preposition 以

Used to form a prepositional phrase with the following noun or pronoun. Usually, the prepositional phrase serves as an instrument, condition or manner. It is like modern '用'

以子之矛，陷子之盾 To use your spear to stab your shield. or: To stab your shield with (using) your spear.

Sentence-initial particle 夫

夫 is a particle at the beginning of a sentence. It does not carry lexical meaning. It just indicates that the following sentence is a continuation of previous sentences.