爱己 · 自知不自见
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
当百姓被逼到不再畏惧统治者的高压威吓时，真正覆天翻地的大祸患便要降临了。 切勿侵夺挤压百姓安居的空间，切勿阻塞压榨百姓谋生的生计。唯有居上者不欺压厌弃百姓，百姓才不会厌弃推翻他。 因此圣人有深刻的自我认知却从不自我炫耀，珍惜爱护自身生命却从不自视高贵凌人。所以舍弃炫耀傲慢而择取内敛自爱。
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)
Commentary
青禾散人评注：“自知不自见，自爱不自贵”精准划清了健康自尊与膨胀自恋的界限：真正自知自爱的人内心笃定，无需靠贬低他人或炫耀特权来确认自我。