Hear explanation and a changed situation
也 and 矣 often make different contributions. 也 can frame or conclude an explanation; 矣 frequently presents a newly relevant or changed situation. Neither is simply an English tense ending.
也 · 矣
A reading procedure
- Read the preceding proposition.
- Ask whether the speaker explains a relation or marks a new state.
- Look at contrast and discourse position, not the particle alone.
Do not replace every 矣 with modern 了 and assume that the analysis is complete.
Compare
Find other occurrences of 也 · 矣 ↗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.
7 examples in context
巧言令色，鮮矣仁
Clever speech and a pleasing appearance: benevolence is rare there.
巧言 and 令色 form a paired description. 鮮 is a predicate meaning rare; 仁 appears after the evaluative phrase. Read the expressive order without silently turning it into a general rule that attractiveness is immoral.
Check your reading · Which word supplies the judgment of rarity?
鮮, rather than the final position of 仁.
雖曰未學，吾必謂之學矣
Even if such a person is said not to have studied, I would certainly call that person learned.
雖 concedes a description that the main judgment rejects. The preceding examples of conduct define the person referred to by 之. This contrast separates schooling from the speaker’s criterion for being learned.
Check your reading · What survives the concession introduced by 雖?
The speaker’s judgment that the person counts as learned.
民德歸厚矣
The people’s moral character will turn toward depth.
矣 presents the resulting state as newly relevant after the preceding practices. 厚 is an ethical characterization here; English “depth” is an interpretive rendering of a word also used for physical thickness.
Check your reading · Why is an English past tense not required by 矣?
The particle highlights a resulting or newly relevant situation, not an English tense.
溫故而知新，可以為師矣
Revisit what is old and come to understand what is new; one may thereby serve as a teacher.
The first two predicates form a connected activity. 為師 names a role, while 矣 presents the resulting qualification. “Old” and “new” function as objects here; the sentence does not require a separate noun for lessons.
Check your reading · What role does 為師 describe?
Serving as a teacher.
五十者可以衣帛矣
People of fifty can then wear silk.
者 identifies people characterized by the stated age. 衣 takes 帛 as its object and functions as a verb meaning wear or be clothed in. This is a lexical conversion in context, not evidence that every noun has a causative reading.
Check your reading · How does 衣 function here?
As a verb taking 帛 as its object.
昔我往矣，楊柳依依。今我來思，雨雪霏霏。
When I departed, the willows swayed; now I return, snow falls thickly.
昔 and 今 organize the contrast between departure and return. 思 after 來 is read here as a verse particle, not automatically as the verb think. The seasonal imagery frames the returning speaker's experience without giving a precise elapsed duration.
Check your reading · Which paired expressions establish the temporal frame?
昔我往 and 今我來.
知不知、上矣，不知知、病矣
To recognize not knowing is best; not knowing while claiming knowledge is a defect.
The parallel clauses depend on the placement of 不 among repeated 知. The English makes an interpretive expansion in claiming knowledge; those extra words are not separately written in the source. The continuation plays on treating the defect as a defect, so the repeated 病 must also be read relationally.
Check your reading · Why is word order essential here?
Moving 不 changes the relation between knowing and not knowing.