Analects / Book 2.17, Wei Zheng

Analects Passage on To Know What You Know: Text, Translation, and Commentary

Analects Passage on To Know What You Know: Text, Translation, and Commentary with original text, pinyin, a literal rendering, a readable translation, source location, key terms, and a careful modern reading.

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Analects to know what you know original Chinese pinyin translation meaning

Analects, Book 2.17, Wei Zheng: read "子曰：由，誨女知之乎！知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。" before the English explanation.

Original text

子曰：由，誨女知之乎！知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。

Zi yue, You, hui ru zhi zhi hu. Zhi zhi wei zhi zhi, bu zhi wei bu zhi, shi zhi ye.

Literal layer

The Master said: You, shall I teach you what knowing is? To treat what you know as what you know, and what you do not know as what you do not know, this is knowing.

Readable layer

Analects 2.17 defines knowing as intellectual honesty: acknowledge what you know and what you do not know.

Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern from The Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access collection — **Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern; Fujiwara no Yukinari; Mary Griggs Burke Collection, 2015; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.**Three Poems from the Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern is used as a public-domain manuscript-style object for dialogue and passage comparison on Analects To Know What You Know. The fit is semantic: the page asks readers to inspect Book 2.17, Wei Zheng and the term You, while the image remains illustrative rather than proof of the exact manuscript, author portrait, or historical scene.

Reader focus

What this page helps you decide

Analects 2.17 defines knowledge through honesty about limits. Confucius addresses You and asks whether he should teach him what knowing is. The answer is not a store of facts. Knowing means treating what one knows as known, and what one does not know as not known. The repetition of zhi makes the sentence memorable, but the point is practical: false certainty is not knowledge.

Watch You, zhi, bu zhi; these terms decide where the literal layer and the readable layer separate.
Compare this passage with the learning-without-thought page and the broader knowing-what-you-know quote page before quoting it.

The Teaching Scene

This block uses Analects, Book 2.17, Wei Zheng as the anchor, with "子曰：由，誨女知之乎！知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。" kept in front of the explanation.

Addressing You: The passage begins with You, the personal name of Zilu. This direct address matters because the line is not merely an abstract proverb. It is teaching aimed at a particular disciple. Keeping You visible helps readers hear the sentence as instruction within a relationship, not as a floating slogan.

Teaching Knowing: Hui ru zhi zhi hu can be read as shall I teach you what knowing is. The line is almost playful in its repetition, but the lesson is serious. Confucius does not define knowledge by volume of information. He defines it by correct recognition of the boundary between knowing and not knowing.

What You Know: Zhi zhi wei zhi zhi means to take what is known as known. This sounds obvious, but it includes discipline. One must not pretend that knowledge is more complete than it is, and one must not hide real knowledge out of evasiveness. The phrase asks for accurate acknowledgement.

What You Do Not Know: Bu zhi wei bu zhi is the harder half for many readers. It asks the learner to name non-knowledge as non-knowledge. In the Analects, this is not humiliation. It is a condition for learning. A person who cannot admit not knowing cannot be taught well and cannot judge responsibly.

The Word That Changes The Passage

This Is Knowing: Shi zhi ye closes the passage by naming this honesty as knowledge. The final zhi is not simply another fact. It is the state of knowing how to locate oneself truthfully. The sentence therefore makes intellectual humility part of knowledge, not an optional virtue added afterward.

Why Repetition Matters: The line repeats zhi so often that English can sound awkward if it tries to imitate every turn. This page keeps the repetition visible in pinyin and literal translation because the repeated word is the lesson. Knowledge is being folded back on itself: know knowing, know not knowing, and know the difference.

Modern Boundary: The passage can help in classrooms, research, leadership, and public argument, but it should not be reduced to a vague call for humility. It is sharper than that. It says that mislabeling ignorance as knowledge is itself a failure of knowing. The modern use should keep that precision.

Analects To Know What You Know Reading Payoff: This page differs from the broader knowing-what-you-know quote page because it explains the direct address to You and the repeated zhi structure. It differs from the learning-without-thought passage because this line concerns honesty about epistemic limits, while 2.15 concerns the balance between study and reflection.

Keep the term set visible here: You, zhi, bu zhi. The reading changes if one of these terms is translated too smoothly.

Use The Passage Without Flattening It

Analects To Know What You Know Source Checkpoint: Read the passage as a small teaching scene: Analects, Book 2.17, Wei Zheng, opening with "子曰：由，誨女知之乎！知之為知之，不知為不知，是知也。". Keep You beside the Chinese wording before accepting the readable English. On this page the source anchor is doing real work: it tells the reader where the claim begins, which phrase is being interpreted, and why the explanation should stay narrower than a later proverb or author label.

Analects To Know What You Know Reader Decision: The practical decision is whether the reader can notice who asks, who answers, and which word carries the correction. Compare You with zhi, then ask which English phrase compresses the most. That check blocks the common mistake of treating a classroom exchange as anonymous advice; it also gives the page a finish line, so the reader leaves with a source habit rather than a smoother slogan.

The reading should end in one practical move: Compare this passage with the learning-without-thought page and the broader knowing-what-you-know quote page before quoting it.

Next reading

Links chosen for reading movement

Confucius Quotes About Knowing What You Know: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects To Know What You Know, open Confucius Quotes About Knowing What You Know to compare You with a second checked passage; the path starts from Book 2.17, Wei Zheng, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Analects Passage on Learning Without ThoughtFrom Analects To Know What You Know, open Analects Passage on Learning Without Thought to test the translation boundary against a neighboring source; the path starts from Book 2.17, Wei Zheng, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Confucius Quotes About Humility in Study: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects To Know What You Know, open Confucius Quotes About Humility in Study to move from this wording to a concrete reader workflow; the path starts from Book 2.17, Wei Zheng, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.Confucius Quotes About Correcting Oneself: Analects Source and MeaningFrom Analects To Know What You Know, open Confucius Quotes About Correcting Oneself to keep the next step tied to source evidence instead of a loose related list; the path starts from Book 2.17, Wei Zheng, so the link has a specific reading job rather than a generic recommendation.