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carrying a sense like, “This being so, well . . .” followed by a shrug, signifying, “what did
you expect?”

6.3 Sui 雖 and sui rán 雖然

Unlike Modern Chinese, where the sense of “although” is carried by the compound 雖然,
in WYW, the word 雖 alone carries this sense. In WYW, the adverb 雖 in an initial
clause is often found in combination with the adverb yì 亦 in a subsequent clause. The
two together convey the meaning: “Although . . . still/nevertheless . . .” An equivalent
pattern in MC would be: 雖然 . . . 還 . . . . For example:

MC: 我雖然不喜歡我的老師，還不要殺死他！

WYW: 吾雖不好師，亦不欲殺之！

The meaning of the phrase 雖然 in WYW is very different from that of MC. 雖 itself
carries the meaning of “although,” a meaning conveyed in MC by the binome 雖然
(wherein 然 performs as a suffix-adjunct indicating manner); 然 retains its original sense
in WYW, “it being so.” Thus in WYW, 雖 and 然, though frequently occurring together
at the outset of a sentence, remain independent. Their meaning is: “Although it is so.”

吾不好我師．雖然，亦不欲殺之！

6.4 Inversion with shì 是

Shì 是 serves as an emphatic form, denoting either “this” or “truly.” It is not infrequently
“preposed” – placed in front of the verb of which it is an object – for purposes of
rhetorical emphasis. This inversion is especially frequent when 是 appears with the
coverb 以, as is the case in this text. 是以, literally: “this on account of,” simply means,
“on account of this,” or “hence.”

6.5 Relationship between wéi 為 and wèi 謂

There is a frequent overlap between the two very different terms wéi 為 (“to be, to do, to
act as”) and wèi 謂 (“to refer to, to characterize”). It is not always clear whether this
overlap is a semantic one (the meanings of “to be” and “to be characterized as” can be
nearly indistinguishable) or a case of phonetic loan. In this text, 為 in the final clause may
be interpreted either way, but because the implicit subject is dead, inferring the sense of
“to be referred to as” makes greater sense. (N.B. This particular loan relationship does
not appear very often.)