15 Ancient Chinese Wisdom Quotes — From Confucius to Laozi

Practice what you know

Literal: Knowledge and action unite as one

Wang Yangming reached his enlightenment in exile at Longchang in Guizhou in 1508, and began teaching this doctrine the following year, when he was invited to head the academy at Guiyang: knowing (知) and acting (行) are one (合一) rather than two stages. His claim is stronger than an exhortation to put ...

Push far enough and it turns

Literal: Things at extreme reverse

When a thing (物) reaches its extreme (极) it must (必) turn back (反). The formula is put most plainly in the Lüshi Chunqiu, which argues that the ruler should not occupy the complete, the extreme or the full, because what is complete will be broken, what is extreme will reverse, and what is full will ...

Good and evil deeds repaid in kind

Literal: Cause and effect return

Cause (因), effect (果), and the returning repayment (报应). The vocabulary is Buddhist and entered Chinese with the translated sutras, bringing with it a moral mechanics quite different from the older Chinese idea of heaven's mandate: consequence here is impersonal, exact, and not necessarily settled w...

Weigh it before you move

Literal: Think three times then act

This one comes from the Analects, on Ji Wenzi, who thought (思) three times (三) before acting (行). The passage is usually quoted as praise, but Confucius's actual response was dry: twice is enough. The idiom therefore recommends something its source gently mocks — deliberation past the point of usefu...

Stay humble and open

Literal: Empty heart like valley

The Daodejing describes the man of old as being, among other things, open as a valley. A chest (怀) held empty (虚) like (若) a valley (谷) takes in whatever comes down into it, and the emptiness is a capacity rather than a lack. Chinese moral vocabulary is consistent about this: the chest is where tole...

Always someone better

Literal: Skies beyond skies

Beyond (外) the sky (天) there is another sky (天). It travels as half of a pair — 天外有天，人外有人, and beyond any person there is another person — and the second clause is what the first is for. The construction is deliberately recursive: no matter which sky you have reached, the sentence can be applied aga...

Self-reflect daily

Literal: Examine self three times

Zengzi, not Confucius, says it in the Analects: daily I examine (省) myself (吾身) on three (三) points — whether I have been unfaithful in planning for others, whether I have been untrustworthy with friends, whether I have failed to practise what was passed on to me. Whether 三 counts the occasions or t...

Repeated lie becomes truth

Literal: Three people make tiger real

Pang Cong, about to leave Wei escorting a hostage prince to Handan, asked his king whether he would believe a man who reported a tiger (虎) in the marketplace. No. Two men? He would wonder. Three (三) men (人)? The king said he would believe it. There is no tiger in the marketplace, Pang Cong said, and...

Experience brings wisdom

Literal: Old horse knows way

Returning from a campaign against Guzhu, the army of Duke Huan of Qi lost the road, and Guan Zhong proposed releasing the old horses (老马) and following them: they had walked the route before and would know the way (识途). They did, and the army got home. The Han Feizi tells it. What makes it a story r...

Learn from the worthy

Literal: See worthy wish equal

Confucius in the Analects: seeing (见) a worthy man (贤), think of (思) matching him (齐) — and seeing an unworthy one, turn inward and examine yourself. The second clause is normally left off and is the sharper half, since it makes every encounter instructive regardless of who you meet. What the phrase...

Moderation in all things

Literal: Excess equals deficiency

Zigong asked Confucius which of two disciples was the better; one went too far and one fell short. Asked whether going too far was therefore better, Confucius answered 过犹不及 — overshooting (过) is just like (犹) falling short (不及). The point is that they are the same kind of error, not that one is pref...

Effortless skill through perfect practice

Literal: Chef Ding butchers ox

Cook Ding (庖丁) cut apart (解) an ox (牛) for Lord Wenhui with his whole body in motion and the blade whispering, never once meeting bone. At first, he said, he saw nothing but ox; after three years he no longer saw the whole animal; now he meets it with his mind rather than his eyes and guides the kni...

Judge by evidence, not doctrine

Literal: Seek truth from facts

This is from the Book of Han, in its account of Liu De, Prince Xian of Hejian, praised for loving antiquity and seeking (求) what is so (是) from actual matters (实事) — that is, for checking texts against evidence rather than accepting received readings. He is not to be confused with Emperor Xian, the ...

Haste makes waste; more haste less speed

Literal: Desire speed, not reach

Confucius, advising a newly appointed magistrate, told him not to want things quickly and not to be drawn by small advantages: 欲速则不达 — want (欲) speed (速) and you will not (不) arrive (达). The reasoning is administrative rather than moral, and it concerns a governor trying to show results early. The c...

Retire at the peak; know when to quit

Literal: Brave retreat from rapid current

To pull out (退) bravely (勇) while the current (流) is still running fast (急). The image is a boatman who turns for the bank at the point where everything is going well, and 勇 is the load-bearing character — the phrase insists that leaving takes more nerve than staying. That is the whole argument. Som...