Name the one, thing, or situation
A predicate followed by 者 can refer to what satisfies it: a person, thing, or class. In other contexts 者 marks a topic or a pause before an explanation.
者
A reading procedure
- Bracket the full predicate before 者, including its objects.
- Ask what kind of entity the context supplies.
- Check whether the phrase is instead setting up a topic.
者 does not always mean “person”; a thing, event, or topic may be intended.
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.
18 examples in context
未若貧而樂道，富而好禮者也
It is not as good as being poor yet delighting in the way, or rich yet loving ritual.
未若 introduces a comparison with the previous proposal. 者 closes the paired description as something that can be compared. This witness includes 道 after 樂; preserve that textual choice rather than silently substituting another edition.
Check your reading · What does 未若 compare?
The earlier condition with the richer ethical description that follows.
未有仁而遺其親者也
There has not been a benevolent person who abandons their parents.
者 closes the description 仁而遺其親 as the entity whose existence is denied. 其 refers within that description. The writer asserts the incompatibility; the grammar does not independently prove the ethical claim.
Check your reading · How far back does the description closed by 者 extend?
Across 仁而遺其親, not just the immediately preceding noun.
不賢者雖有此，不樂也
Those who are not worthy do not enjoy this, even if they possess it.
不賢者 is the topic group; 雖有此 concedes possession of the beautiful setting. The last predicate denies enjoyment. 此 refers to the king’s surroundings, not a generic object inferred from the dictionary.
Check your reading · What does the concession grant without granting enjoyment?
Possession of the setting just discussed.
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.
然而不王者，未之有也
There has not been someone who acts in this way and still fails to become a true king.
王 functions as a predicate. 者 packages the described person or case, and 未之有 denies its existence with a preceding object. The claim belongs to Mencius’s political argument; the interface does not certify it as a historical law.
Check your reading · Which expression denies the existence of the described case?
未之有也.
勞力者治於人
Those who labor with physical strength are governed by others.
勞力者 is the affected group, 治 the action, and 於人 supplies the agent relation. Contrast a simple locative 於 such as 立於沼上. The sentence expresses a social doctrine in the text, not a recommendation from zimai.
Check your reading · What relation does 於人 express in this clause?
The agent of governing: other people.
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.
古之善為道者
Those of old who were skilled in practicing the way.
者 closes a description containing 善 and 為道. 古之 locates the described people in an earlier time. Read the whole predicate rather than treating 者 as a suffix attached only to 道.
Check your reading · Which words belong inside the description closed by 者?
善為道, within the temporal frame 古之.
企者不立
One who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm.
者 makes the action 企 into a referential expression. The following parallel movement image extends the contrast between strained assertion and stability. “Firm” is supplied to express the contrast, not a separate written adjective.
Check your reading · What does 者 turn into a referential expression?
The action or condition 企.
適百里者，宿舂糧
One traveling a hundred li prepares grain the night before.
者 closes the travel description 適百里. The following predicate concerns that traveler, although its subject is not repeated. The surrounding short and long journeys test how preparation depends on scale.
Check your reading · Who is the unexpressed subject of 宿舂糧?
The traveler identified by 適百里者.
非我而當者，吾師也
Someone who criticizes me and is right is my teacher.
非 functions as a predicate directed at 我; 者 gathers that description into a person-expression. 而當 limits the endorsement to criticism that is fitting. The sentence does not make every hostile critic a reliable teacher.
Check your reading · What qualification makes the critic a teacher?
當: the criticism must be fitting or correct.
善生養人者人親之
People feel close to one who is good at sustaining and nourishing them.
The first 人 belongs inside 生養人; 者 then closes the description of the ruler. The next 人 is the subject of 親, and 之 refers back to that ruler. Without these boundaries, a reader can mistake the two adjacent 人 for one constituent.
Check your reading · Who is the object of 親?
The person described by 善生養人者, resumed by 之.
治國者莫不有法，然而有存有亡
Those who govern states all have standards, yet some states survive and some perish.
莫不 forms a universal affirmative through negation. 然而 then blocks the inference that merely possessing 法 ensures survival. The next sentence locates the proposed difference in the allocation of punishment and reward; the scope of the initial claim is therefore crucial.
Check your reading · What inference does 然而 prevent?
That the mere existence of standards guarantees a state's survival.
怒可以復喜，慍可以復悅，亡國不可以復存，死者不可以復生
Anger can return to joy, and resentment to pleasure; a ruined state cannot simply be restored, nor the dead brought back to life.
Repeated 復 makes reversibility the axis of the comparison. The first two clauses concern changing emotions; the latter two concern destructive outcomes. 者 in 死者 refers to those who have died. The contrast supplies a reason against initiating war from anger.
Check your reading · What property organizes the four clauses?
Whether the change can be reversed.
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.
知人者、智，自知者、明
Knowing others is wisdom; knowing oneself is clarity.
The repeated 者 phrases identify people characterized by acts of knowing, while 自 changes the object to oneself. The terse parallelism contrasts kinds of discernment; it does not provide a standardized psychological test or require 智 and 明 to be synonyms.
Check your reading · Which element makes the second act of knowing reflexive?
自.
必取於人知敵之情者也
It must be obtained from people who know the enemy's actual situation.
者 closes the description 知敵之情 and identifies the human source of knowledge. The opening of the sentence rejects several other routes to foreknowledge. This is a claim about intelligence gathering in the chapter's setting, not a general proof that testimony is always accurate.
Check your reading · What qualifies the people from whom knowledge is to be obtained?
They know the enemy's actual situation; the description is closed by 者.