1. To know something is to know it, and to know it is to know it. It is knowledge.

Translation: If you understand, you understand, if you don’t understand, you don’t understand. This is true wisdom.

2. Smart and eager to learn, and not ashamed to ask questions.

Translation: Ordinary people with sensitive natures often find it hard to learn, while those with high status are often ashamed to ask questions from their subordinates.

3. If you learn without thinking, you will be in vain; if you think without learning, you will be in danger.

Translation: Just studying without thinking will make the meaning of the text meaningless, confusing and gaining nothing; just thinking without learning will lead to mental fatigue and gaining nothing.

Confucius advocated "knowing what you know, and not knowing what you don't know", and adopting an attitude of ignoring things you don't know. Of course, people below average intelligence cannot know everything. Except for things involving gods, monsters, and ghosts, admitting that you know something and something you don’t know is an honest attitude and the smartest attitude.

Extended information:

A reading method advocated by Confucius. If you just read without thinking, you will be led by the books and lose your opinion. This is what is meant by the saying that it is better to have no books than to believe in books. And if you just dream without doing real study and research, you will end up building a tower on sand and gain nothing. Learning and thinking are complementary to each other and cannot be separated from each other. Only by combining learning and thinking can we learn practical and useful knowledge.

The Western philosopher Kant also said, "Perceptuality without sensibility is blind, and intelligence without sensibility is empty." This is astonishingly consistent with Confucius's "Learning without thinking leads to ignorance; thinking without learning leads to peril." consistent. It can be seen that the fundamental principles of human learning and acquisition of knowledge are often the same regardless of regional or racial differences.