Baike thinks it's the host's modesty and the hospitality of ordinary people.
Interestingly, the Legge translation seems to give a sense of scarcity, but the way Baike describes the gourd leaves (bitter) and the rabbit (not one of the "six animals" that should be meat dishes (pig, cattle, sheep, chicken, fish, geese), so it's not elegant) makes it seem more like it's just that the food is crude and simple? OTOH, it also glosses the rabbit as just a rabbit head, which seems like not very much food. (The vernacular uses a more general rabbit meat.)
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Re: 231. 瓠葉 - Hu Ye
Date: 2021-05-16 05:31 pm (UTC)Interestingly, the Legge translation seems to give a sense of scarcity, but the way Baike describes the gourd leaves (bitter) and the rabbit (not one of the "six animals" that should be meat dishes (pig, cattle, sheep, chicken, fish, geese), so it's not elegant) makes it seem more like it's just that the food is crude and simple? OTOH, it also glosses the rabbit as just a rabbit head, which seems like not very much food. (The vernacular uses a more general rabbit meat.)