Need help with some Classical Chinese (所，所以）

[sotired80]

I just stumbled onto this place but hopely you folks can help me with some Classical Chinese.

We are translating 所，所以 phrases right now in my class. 所 is "what is verb-ed by by subject". 所以is "the means by which verb happens..." "that which is used (to do something)"

According to my teacher, 所以 never means "therefore".

So 所见= that which is seen?

所以见=the means by which seeing occurs? is there a better translation of that?

何以见之。所以见目也。= how does he see it? The means by which he sees are the eyes.

以目见之。= by means of the eyes he sees it.

见之以目。= see it because of the eyes.

I'm pretty sure all these are wrong. if someone can help me it'll be appreciated.

[Lu]

所以 = ' the reason why' or ' the means by which.'

所以见目也。 The means by which one sees are the eyes.

Your translations look ok to me.

[againstwind]

According to my teacher, 所以 never means "therefore".

Make sure that 所以 in classical Chinese never means therefore.

所见= that which is seen?

yes. or rather what is seen.

何以见之。所以见目也。= how does he see it? The means by which he sees are the eyes.

何以见之? = how does (he) see it? acceptable.

the formal order of it should be 以何见之？以 should be by or depending, and 何 should be what.

所以见目也。= The means by which he sees are the eyes.

i feel it's precisely what it should be.

以目见之。= by means of the eyes he sees it.

见之以目。= see it because of the eyes.

i think 以目见之 and 见之以目 are the same, meaning (he) see it by the eyes .Not because of the eyes.

[sotired80]

Thanks alot guys. This site is a godsend. I'm sure it'll help my study of Chinese.

[bugaboo]

I may need write pages on "所以" if with every detail.

Here I just give some analysis for the mentioned phrases.

"所以" has two common usages.

First ，it means "so". After a reason is described, "所以" will lead to the result.

Typically: "因为正在下雨，所以 我们要用雨伞"

It is raining now, so we need umbrellas.

Second,

In classical Chinese, "所以" has the meaning "It is because something can be used to ..."

It is different from the first illustration, "所以" here can be divided into two words "所" and "以"；所 means "it is because", 以 means "we can use or depend on" or " in this way".

A famous sentence in Classical Chinese:

"师者，所以传道 授业 解惑也。"

Teachers, those are the persons who we can depend on to impart truth, teach students and clear up difficult questions."

When it comes to "何以见之? 所以见目也。" mentioned above.We can give the following translation:

how does he see (understand) it?

It is because（所） he saw（见） it with his own eys(以目).

It worth mentioning here is a frequent phenomenon in classical chinese called "reversion"

所以 见目 也=所以 目见 也. (Note that 目见 is reversed as 见目)

Another example for "reversion" is "吾谁与归?"。It means "吾与谁归? (Who can accompany me to get the same destination?)"。

[againstwind]

所以 见目 也=所以 目见 也. (Note that 目见 is reversed as 见目)

excuse me, i wonder whether it is proper that you explaine 所以见目也 as a reversion.

this is a declarative sentence in classical Chinese, isn't it? like this pattern: (夫) A (者)，B 也,

which means a is b. Here 所以 adds 见 and makes 所以见 as a nominal phrase.

is there so-called reversion phenomenon in a declarative sentence?

i know in negative or question, the objective should be moved ahead, like "吾谁与归?"("吾与谁归? "),

[Dylan Sung]

I would hazard a guess that you can analyse the sentence as

{所以见} {目也}