Track whose, which, and whose perspective
其 often introduces a possessive or demonstrative expression. In some clauses it contributes a conjectural, rhetorical, or exhortative force instead. The surrounding syntax decides.
其
A reading procedure
- Look for a noun immediately following 其.
- Find a possible antecedent in the previous discourse.
- If no nominal head fits, examine the clause as a whole for a modal reading.
Do not assume modern 他 or “his” fits every occurrence.
Compare
Search finds spelling; it does not automatically label every occurrence with this construction.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Evidence and further study
Linked passages below provide the primary-text evidence for these editorial examples. The readings are not borrowed from, or endorsed by, the further-study references.
Kanseki Repository · pinned primary text witnesses
Textual evidence. Individual examples link to exact source files and lines.
Edwin G. Pulleyblank · Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar
Further study: word order, predication, nominalization, negation and complex sentences. Book content is not reproduced.
Robert Eno · Introduction to Literary Chinese, Part I
Further study: an academic primer with annotated readings and exercises. Not imported.
Introduction to Classical Chinese · Schonebaum and contributors
Further study: function words and reading lessons. CC BY-NC-SA material is not imported into this dataset.
Thesaurus Linguae Sericae
Further research: contextual historical senses and syntactic analysis. No TLS annotation import in this release.
15 examples in context
父在，觀其志；父沒，觀其行
While the father lives, observe the son’s intentions; after the father dies, observe his conduct.
The paired clauses guide the reading, but the son is supplied from the social situation rather than named in these words. 其 requires a referent. Keep this supplied referent visible when comparing interpretations of the passage.
Check your reading · Which participant is supplied rather than explicitly named here?
The son whose intentions and conduct are being assessed.
觀其所由，察其所安
Observe what a person follows; examine where that person is at ease.
Each 所 phrase turns a relation into something to inspect. 其 supplies a contextual participant. The second phrase shows why a single English “thing which” cannot capture every 所 construction: a place or condition may be involved.
Check your reading · Why do the two 所 phrases need different English renderings?
Their governing predicates describe different relations.
慎言其餘，則寡尤
Speak cautiously about what remains, and there will be fewer grounds for blame.
其餘 refers to what remains after doubtful material has been set aside. 則 introduces the result of that caution. This passage makes uncertainty itself a topic of study rather than something the reader should silently erase.
Check your reading · What does 其餘 refer back to?
The material remaining after doubtful points are withheld.
人而無信，不知其可也
If a person lacks trustworthiness, I do not know how that can work.
The initial clause sets up a hypothetical case; 而 does not need a literal “and”. The second clause evaluates its viability. The following cart image makes the argument concrete but does not establish a lexical identity between trust and a cart fitting.
Check your reading · Is the first clause naturally read as an ordinary list?
No. It sets up a case or condition for the judgment that follows.
當其無，有車之用
Where it is empty, there is the usefulness of the cart.
其 points back to the wheel’s hub in the preceding line. 無 is treated as the relevant empty space, while 車之用 names the usefulness being explained. The next vessel and room examples repeat this contrast.
Check your reading · What supplies the referent of 其?
The wheel and hub described immediately before it.
吾以觀其復
I thereby observe their return.
其 resumes the myriad things in the preceding clause. 以 relates the observing to the stance or means just established. “Return” is a nominal rendering of 復 here; it is not automatically a modern two-character word segmentation.
Check your reading · What plural referent is supplied by the context for 其?
萬物, the myriad things.
吾不知其名，字之曰道
I do not know its name; I style it “Dao”.
其 relates 名 to the previously described entity. 之 is the object of 字, which functions as a naming verb. 曰 introduces the assigned designation. Keeping these roles separate shows why repeated small words carry much of the structure.
Check your reading · Which verb takes 之 as its object?
字, used as a verb of naming.
其正色邪
Is that its true color?
The preceding 天之蒼蒼 establishes the blue appearance under discussion. 其 can be read in relation to the sky and the interrogative frame; the next alternative raises distance as an explanation. The short question is part of a comparison of perspectives.
Check your reading · What question does the following alternative raise?
Whether distance rather than an intrinsic color explains the appearance.
奚以知其然也
By what can one know that it is so?
奚 is the interrogative object related to 以. 其然 refers to the preceding contrast between smaller and greater perspectives or lifetimes. The question opens a demand for evidence rather than supplying it.
Check your reading · Which following material answers the question?
The examples of organisms with different spans of experience.
人之性惡，其善者偽也
Human nature is bad; its goodness is deliberate human achievement.
其 resumes the human subject; 者 helps set off goodness as the topic of the second judgment. 偽 is read here as cultivated or deliberate activity, not simply deceit. The nature/activity distinction is disputed in scholarship; the contrast in this sentence must remain visible before comparing it with Mencius.
Check your reading · Why is translating 偽 as dishonesty misleading here?
The clause credits cultivated activity with goodness; it is distinguishing that activity from 性.
其疾如風，其徐如林；侵掠如火，不動如山
Swift as wind, measured as a forest; raiding like fire, unmoving like a mountain.
The parallel comparisons switch the relevant property in each image. 其 resumes the military body or action in context. The images are situational alternatives rather than instructions to display speed and immobility simultaneously.
Check your reading · Why must the property of comparison be recovered separately each time?
Each image illustrates a different mode of action rather than one shared physical property.
無恃其不來，恃吾有以待也
Do not rely on the enemy's not coming; rely on having the means to meet them.
The first 無 introduces a directive, while 其 and 吾 contrast enemy and self. 有以 expresses having a means or basis; the object of 待 is supplied from the adversary under discussion. The distinction is between hoping for favorable behavior and preparing one's own capacity.
Check your reading · What does 有以 add beyond simply having something?
It presents a means or capacity for the following action.
擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之
Choose what is good in them and follow it; take what is not good and correct it in oneself.
其 resumes the companions in the preceding sentence. The second half leaves the reflexive application unstated, which the paired instruction and self-cultivation context support. That supplied relation should be distinguished from a literal claim that one immediately reforms the other people.
Check your reading · What is supplied in the usual reading of 改之?
Correcting the corresponding fault in oneself rather than necessarily changing the companion.
盡其心者，知其性也。知其性，則知天矣。
Those who fully realize their heart-mind know their nature; knowing their nature, they know Heaven.
Repeated 其 keeps heart-mind and nature attached to the person under discussion. 者 first creates a subject-expression, then 則 marks the next inferential step. The sequence is the text's proposed path of understanding and should not be presented as a settled psychological mechanism.
Check your reading · What step does 則 introduce?
The claimed movement from knowing one's nature to knowing Heaven.
圖難於其易也，為大於其細也
Plan for difficulty while it is still easy; address what is great while it is still small.
The 於 phrases locate action at an early condition, and 其 links that condition to the developing affair. The following maxim supplies the reason: great and difficult matters have small and easy beginnings. Read the paired temporal logic before applying the advice to a modern task.
Check your reading · What do 易 and 細 have in common in this argument?
They identify the earlier conditions at which intervention is possible.