Meaning: Knowing means knowing, not knowing means not knowing. This is a kind of wisdom.

From: "The Analects of Confucius·Wei Zheng"

Author: Confucius

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn Period

Original text: Confucius said: "Yu, Taught the girl to know! To know is to know, not to know is to know."

Translation: Zilu, tell me your attitude towards knowledge and ignorance (that is, your attitude towards learning)! Knowing means knowing, and not knowing means not knowing. This is true wisdom.

Extended information:

"Wei Zheng" includes 24 chapters. The main content of this article involves Confucius's thought of "governing with virtue", the basic principles of how to seek an official position and working in politics as an official, the relationship between learning and thinking, Confucius's own learning and cultivation process, the learning method of reviewing the past and learning the new, and the Further elaboration of moral categories such as filial piety and brotherhood.

"Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing, it is knowledge." It talks about the attitude Confucius taught everyone towards learning, and of course the attitude towards other things. Confucius believed that one must have a humble, sincere and honest attitude towards everything. If you know, you know, if you don't know, you don't know. Don't pretend to understand or deceive yourself.

If a person conceals a problem that he does not understand, does not ask others for advice, and still pretends to understand in front of others, then he is "ignorant" and is too hypocritical. For cultural knowledge and other social knowledge, people should study humbly, study hard, and master as much as possible. But no matter how rich a person’s knowledge is, there will always be things he doesn’t understand.

It’s not scary if people don’t understand. What’s scary is that they don’t know how to pretend to understand. In this world, no one is born with knowledge of astronomy, geography, and the past and present. People are constantly changing. Continuously enrich yourself through learning and exploration. Only by learning from others humbly and not being ashamed to ask questions can you continue to make progress and learn more knowledge.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Knowing is knowing, not knowing is not knowing