Ze Tian Ji Chapter 835

1. The saying the Old Master refers to, ‘老太爺喝稀飯，無恥下流’, is a ‘xiehouyu’, which involves saying the first part, pausing, and then giving the second part, which is the ‘answer’. In this case, the original saying is, ‘the old lady drinks porridge—doesn’t know the meaning of shame’. This is a play on words, as ‘無恥’, ‘shameless’, shares the same pronunciation as ‘無齒’, ‘toothless’. ‘下流’ can just mean ‘drinking down’, but it also has more obscene and sexual connotations. ↩

2. This saying is from the Analects, and is the heart of Confucius’s ‘Rectification of Names’, the philosophy that all names, which in this case means social names, need to fulfill their required social duties, the ‘rectification’, in order for society to properly function. Chen Changsheng’s meaning here is perhaps more direct, as it must be recalled that Shang Xingzhou is not known as a doctor, but Daoist Ji is a famous one. These ‘incorrect names’ perhaps deprive Shang Xingzhou of his social duty as doctor. Reading more deeply, Shang Xingzhou and Chen Changsheng share a teacher-student relationship, but since Shang Xingzhou has not lived up to his duty as teacher, Chen Changsheng does not need to fulfill his role as a student. ↩