恭惟鞠養
gōng wei jū yǎng
"respect and be considerate of what was raised and nurtured"
In the last post I remarked on reading the Thousand Character Classic as poetry, not because it's a poem per se, but because it's not written in standard prose. It's quite condensed, and pretty much devoid of particles and other grammatical markers that might otherwise help the reader figure out what it's getting at. In a way, it's less of a hassle (I wouldn't say easier, that's for sure), since you don't need to parse lines the same way. Of course, since this is a text designed to teach people how to read 1,000 discrete characters, it wouldn't make sense to include a bunch of duplicate characters—there may be a narrative to parts of the 千字文, but it's not what matters.
This line continues the theme of taking care of oneself out of filial piety: your parents raised you and took care of you, so the right thing to do is to treat your body as a precious gift. Not the worst idea in principle, but it can certainly serve to reinforce the kind of unyielding obedience that I find unappealing.
微臣
史大偉
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