Please help translate (Chinese)

[wasab]

子张问：“十世可知也？”子曰：殷因于夏礼，所损益可知也；周因于殷礼，所损益可知也。其或继周者，虽百世，可知也。

 

What does the above mean?

[zassou]

this is classical text, confucious stuff. probably someone asks is there a pattern in society (dynasties) changes.

 

子張(Zhuansun Shi/顓孫師) askes conficious: can you predict the future 10 generations from now?

confucious says: the rules of Yin comes from Xia, and we know what's added and what's deleted; rules of Zhou comes from Yin, and we know what changes too. if they (our offsprings) still follow the rules of Zhou, even after many generations, we still can predict them.

 

礼 / 禮 : etiquette, social norm, rules etc.

 

reference: http://www.minlun.org.tw/old/330/t330/t330-8-3.htm

[wasab]

9 hours ago, zassou said:

this is classical text, confucious stuff. probably someone asks is there a pattern in society (dynasties) changes.

 

子張(Zhuansun Shi/顓孫師) askes conficious: can you predict the future 10 generations from now?

confucious says: the rules of Yin comes from Xia, and we know what's added and what's deleted; rules of Zhou comes from Yin, and we know what changes too. if they (our offsprings) still follow the rules of Zhou, even after many generations, we still can predict them.

 

礼 / 禮 : etiquette, social norm, rules etc.

 

reference: http://www.minlun.org.tw/old/330/t330/t330-8-3.htm

Interesting, I still have n idea what Confucious meant though. lol 

[zassou]

8 hours ago, wasab said:

Interesting, I still have n idea what Confucious meant though. lol 

my understand: what he says is social norm is written by wise men or 君子, people with great knowledge and etiquette, no matter how dynasties changes, something still around. like the doctrine of confucianism. (btw it's not working in modern society)