Identify means, basis, and purpose
以 often introduces what someone uses, relies on, or takes as a basis. It can participate in constructions translated with “by”, “with”, “because of”, or “in order to”. Start with the local structure.
以
A reading procedure
- Find the expression governed by 以.
- Ask what action it relates to.
- Distinguish an instrument or basis from an intended result.
所以 and 是以 need their own analysis. An object can be omitted when context supplies it.
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.
22 examples in context
使民以時
Employ the people at appropriate times.
使 has 民 as its object, while 以時 gives the timing or governing basis. The agricultural and political setting matters for “appropriate”; it is not simply a literal instrument held by the people.
Check your reading · What relation does 以時 add?
The basis or timing governing the employment of the people.
為政以德
Govern by means of virtue.
為政 gives the activity and 以德 the basis on which it is carried out. The following North Star comparison expands this idea through an image of position and response; it does not turn 德 into a physical instrument.
Check your reading · Which phrase names the basis of governing?
以德.
一言以蔽之
Use one statement to encompass them.
之 refers to the poems just mentioned as 詩三百. English “them” comes from that referent, not from a plural ending on 之. 蔽 is interpreted here as summing up or encompassing.
Check your reading · Why can a single 之 be translated “them”?
Its number is recovered from the preceding reference to the poems.
道之以政，齊之以刑
Guide them through governmental measures and regulate them through punishments.
The two clauses align verb–object–basis. Their 之 refers to the people, who are named in the next clause. The parallel second half replaces 政 and 刑 with 德 and 禮, making the political contrast visible.
Check your reading · Which two positions stay constant in the parallel clauses?
The object 之 and the 以 phrase following it.
生，事之以禮；死，葬之以禮，祭之以禮
While they live, serve them with ritual; after death, bury and sacrifice to them with ritual.
The repeated 之 refers to the parents under discussion. 生 and 死 set contrasting circumstances, while 以禮 stays constant. The English plural is contextual, and the ritual standard explains the previous compressed answer.
Check your reading · What remains constant across the three actions?
The standard 以禮.
臨之以莊，則敬
Approach the people with dignity, and they will show respect.
之 is the object of 臨 and refers to 民 from the question. The subject of 敬 is then understood as the people. The subject therefore changes across the two clauses, even though no new pronoun is written.
Check your reading · Who is understood to perform 敬?
The people, rather than the person who approaches them.
何以利吾國
By what means can I benefit my state?
何 precedes its governing 以. 吾 is spoken by the king within Mencius’s quoted scenario; it does not refer to Mencius. The following social ranks repeat the same frame with 家 and 身.
Check your reading · Who is the referent of 吾 in this quoted question?
The king in the scenario being quoted.
請以戰喻
Allow me to illustrate this through warfare.
請 introduces the proposed explanation and 以戰 names its basis. The matter to be illustrated is omitted because the preceding puzzle supplies it. The line announces an analogy rather than identifying warfare as the literal topic of policy.
Check your reading · What is left unstated after 喻?
The issue being explained, supplied by the preceding exchange.
申之以孝悌之義
Reinforce the instruction through the principles of filial and fraternal conduct.
The first 之 resumes the instruction under discussion; the second links 孝悌 to 義. The same graph performs two different jobs within one short phrase. The interpretation of the resumed object depends on the preceding 教.
Check your reading · Do the two instances of 之 perform the same function?
No. One is an object pronoun; the other links a modifier to 義.
以萬物為芻狗
Treat the myriad things as straw dogs.
萬物 occupies A and 芻狗 occupies B in 以 A 為 B. The ceremonial image has its own interpretive history; the construction establishes a relation of treatment or regard, not a literal transformation into dogs.
Check your reading · Which item occupies B in 以 A 為 B?
芻狗.
天地所以能長且久者
The reason heaven and earth can endure.
所以 packages a basis or reason, and the following text supplies it with 以其不自生. A modern automatic “therefore” for 所以 would invert the relation and obscure the explanatory frame.
Check your reading · Why is modern “therefore” a poor default here?
The phrase asks for the reason or basis of endurance.
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.
吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？以此
By what do I know the condition of these beginnings? By this.
The question places 何 before 以; the reply retains 以 and substitutes 此. That direct correspondence makes the governing relation visible. The short reply leaves its demonstrative referent to the preceding exposition.
Check your reading · How does the answer mirror the question?
何以 asks for the basis; 以此 names that basis demonstratively.
以五百歲為春
Take five hundred years as a spring.
五百歲 is the interval assigned the role 春 in 以 A 為 B. The next clause assigns another interval as autumn. This imaginative scale comparison is source narrative, not a factual life-span measurement endorsed by zimai.
Check your reading · What occupies A in the construction?
五百歲.
名無固宜，約之以命，約定俗成謂之宜
Names have no fixed inherent fitness; they are assigned by agreement, and established convention is called fitting.
The paragraph distinguishes a name's fit from the conventions that sustain it. Recover the referent of each 之 locally rather than assuming both name the same kind of thing. This argument does not imply that any private change of wording automatically becomes intelligible to a community.
Check your reading · What makes a naming practice count as fitting in this sentence?
Agreement that has become established convention.
以子之矛陷子之楯，何如？
What happens if your spear pierces your shield?
以 introduces the instrument; 子 is respectful second-person address, and the two 之 phrases identify the seller's objects. The question tests two universal sales claims against each other. The example concerns incompatible claims, not an etymological proof about every later use of 矛盾.
Check your reading · What makes the question a test rather than a request for product information?
The preceding claims say that nothing pierces the shield and that the spear pierces everything.
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.
它山之石，可以攻玉
Stones from another mountain can be used to work jade.
之 connects the stone to its source, while 可以 presents a possible use. 攻 here concerns working a material, not necessarily military attack. A moral lesson about learning from others is a possible application of the image, but should be distinguished from this literal craft scene.
Check your reading · Why is translating 攻 as attack potentially misleading?
Its object is jade and the local image concerns working or shaping it.
舉一隅不以三隅反，則不復也
If shown one corner someone does not return with the other three, I do not repeat the lesson.
The corners form an image of the learner completing an inference. Subjects and objects are omitted, so the teacher and learner must be recovered from the preceding account of prompting. The passage does not identify a literal geometry lesson as its only setting.
Check your reading · What must the learner contribute beyond the teacher's prompt?
An inference extending the one corner to the other three.
非所以內交於孺子之父母也，非所以要譽於鄉黨朋友也
It is not a means of forming ties with the child's parents, nor a way of seeking praise from neighbors and friends.
Repeated 非所以 excludes proposed motives for the alarm at a child approaching a well. 所以 refers to a means or reason here, not modern therefore. The passage asks readers to discriminate an immediate response from later calculations of advantage.
Check your reading · Which interpretation of 所以 would distort the argument?
Reading it mechanically as the modern conjunction therefore.
相濡以沫，不如相忘於江湖
Moistening one another with foam is less good than forgetting one another in rivers and lakes.
相 makes both actions reciprocal. 以沫 names the means of emergency aid, while 於江湖 gives the setting of the contrasting condition. The comparison is made from the story of fish on dry land; it should not be detached into a simple prohibition on helping others.
Check your reading · Why does the stranded-fish setting matter?
It distinguishes emergency dependence from the more sustaining condition imagined in the second clause.
言者所以在意，得意而忘言
Words are a means for reaching meaning; once meaning is grasped, the words are forgotten.
所以 describes a means, not modern therefore. The preceding fish-trap and rabbit-snare comparisons support the relation between instrument and aim. The final question about speaking with someone who has forgotten words complicates any slogan that language is simply worthless.
Check your reading · What does the fish-trap comparison help identify?
Words as an instrument related to an aim, rather than as the aim itself.