How was it to be anticipated that at the late age of forty, he should be brought so low by a little nun so to feel that he was fluttering, flutteing, fluttering.
B.
Who would have thought that at the "age of moral independence" he should be succumb to the evil spell of a little nun? age of moral independence: that is, thirty, at which Confucius was said to have achieved this state.
C.
Who should tell that close on thirty, when a man should "stand firm", he would lose his head like this over a little nun? stand firm: Confucius said at thirty he "stood firm". The phrase was later used to indicate that a man was thrity years old.
D.
Who could have possibly foreseen that just as he was approaching the age when, like Confucius, he should have "stood firm”, Ah Q would be so subverted by a yound Buddhist nun that he would go around walking on air. stand firm: In a well-known passage of The Analects Confucius says, "At thiry, I stood firm."