愛己 · 自知不自見

Ài Jǐ

Classical Chinese Text

民不畏威，则大威至。无狎其所居，无厌其所生。夫唯不厌，是以不厌。是以圣人自知不自见，自爱不自贵。故去彼取此。

Translation & Meaning

當百姓被逼到不再畏懼統治者的高壓威嚇時，真正覆天翻地的大禍患便要降臨了。 切勿侵奪擠壓百姓安居的空間，切勿阻塞壓榨百姓謀生的生計。唯有居上者不欺壓厭棄百姓，百姓才不會厭棄推翻他。 因此聖人有深刻的自我認知卻從不自我炫耀，珍惜愛護自身生命卻從不自視高貴凌人。所以捨棄炫耀傲慢而擇取內斂自愛。

Commentary

青禾散人評注：「自知不自見，自愛不自貴」精準劃清了健康自尊與膨脹自戀的界限：真正自知自愛的人內心篤定，無需靠貶低他人或炫耀特權來確認自我。

Linguistic & Character Analysis

  • 民 (mín): classical character (mín)
  • 不 (bù): not / un- / without
  • 畏 (wèi): classical character (wèi)
  • 威 (wēi): classical character (wēi)
  • 则 (zé): classical character (zé)
  • 大 (dà): classical character (dà)
  • 至 (zhì): classical character (zhì)
  • 无 (wú): formless void / non-being / without
  • 狎 (xiá): classical character (xiá)
  • 其 (qí): its / their / his / her
  • 所 (suǒ): place / frontier / that which
  • 居 (jū): reside in / carry oneself
  • 厌 (yàn): classical character (yàn)
  • 生 (shēng): give birth to / arise
  • 夫 (fū): for / indeed / now
  • 唯 (wéi): only / precisely because
  • 是 (shì): this / therefore
  • 以 (yǐ): in order to / by means of
  • 圣 (shèng): sage / enlightened one
  • 人 (rén): person / human
  • 自 (zì): classical character (zì)
  • 知 (zhī): know / distinguish / recognize
  • 见 (jiàn): see / display / manifest
  • 爱 (ài): classical character (ài)
  • 贵 (guì): prize / cherish / valuable
  • 故 (gù): therefore / thus / consequence
  • 去 (qù): depart / lose / abandon
  • 彼 (bǐ): classical character (bǐ)
  • 取 (qǔ): classical character (qǔ)
  • 此 (cǐ): classical character (cǐ)