Kanbun - Example

Example

The illustration to the right exemplifies kanbun. These eight characters are the well-known first line in the Han Feizi story (chap. 36, 難一 "Collection of Difficulties, No. 1") that first recorded the word máodùn (Japanese mujun, 矛盾 "contradiction, inconsistency", lit. "spear-shield"), illustrating the irresistible force paradox. In debating with a Confucianist about the legendary Chinese sage rulers Yao and Shun, Legalist Master Han Fei argues that you cannot praise them both because you would be making a "spear-shield" contradiction. The context, in a word-for-word English translation, reads:

A-man from-Ch'u was-selling spears and shields. Praising them, he-said: My shields are so-hard-that things none can defeat-them. Again, praising his spears, he-said: My spears are so-sharp-that things none can defeat-them. Someone said: What if with your spear defeat your shield? That man was not able-to respond." (tr. Wu 1997:111)

Since Chinese and English both have subject–verb–object grammatical order, literally translating this first sentence is straightforwardly understandable, excepting the final particle zhě 者 "one who; that which", which is a nominalizer that marks a pause after a noun phrase.

The original Chinese sentence is marked with five Japanese kaeriten as:

楚人有_下鬻_二盾與_一レ矛者_上

To interpret this, the character 有 "was" marked with shita 下 "bottom" is shifted to the location marked by ue 上 "top", and likewise the character 鬻 "sell" marked with ni 二 "two" is shifted to the location marked by ichi 一 "one". The re レ "reverse mark" indicates that the order of the adjacent characters must be reversed. Or, to represent this kanbun reading in numerical terms:

Following these kanbun instructions step by step transforms the sentence into Japanese subject–object–verb grammatical order. The Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings and meanings are:

Next, Japanese function words and conjugations can be added with okurigana, and Japanese to ... to と...と "and" can be substituted for Chinese 與 "and", specifically, the first と is treated as the reading of 與, and the second, an additional function word:

楚人に盾と矛とを鬻ぐ者有り

Lastly, kun'yomi readings for characters can be annotated with furigana. Normally furigana are only used for uncommon kanji or unusual readings. This sentence's only uncommon kanji is hisa(gu) 鬻ぐ "sell, deal in", a literary character which neither Kyōiku kanji nor Jōyō kanji includes. However, in kanbun texts it is relatively common to use a large amount of furigana -- often there is an interest in "recovering" the readings used by people of the Heian or Nara periods, and since many kanji can be read either with on- or kun-yomi in a kanbun text, the furigana can show at least one editor's opinion of how it may have been read.

楚(そ)人(ひと)に盾(たて)と矛(ほこ)とを鬻(ひさ)ぐ者(もの)有(あ)り

The completed kundoku translation with kun'yomi reads as a well-formed Japanese sentence:

Coming full circle, this annotated Japanese kanbun example back-translates: "There is a man from Chu who was selling shields and spears," or more idiomatically, "There was a man from Chu who was selling shields and spears."