一孔录子曰：不患无位，患所以立。不患莫己知，求为可知也。The Master said: Do not worry about having no position; worry about what you would stand on in it. Do not worry that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.
Tap any sentence of the original to copy it with its source.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：不愁没有职位，愁的是凭什么站在那个职位上；不愁没人知道自己，去求那值得让人知道的本事吧。
A plain modern-Chinese rendering following Yikonglu's reading.
常The common reading
Is this just “don't mind if others don't understand you,” a matter of attitude?
注Key words in the commentary
Zhu Xi: “所以立，谓所以立乎其位者。可知，谓可以见知之实” — what one stands on means that by which one would hold the position; “worth knowing” means the real substance that could be known.
家What other commentators say
Cheng Yi: “君子求其在己者而已矣” — the gentleman seeks only what lies within himself.
读How Yikonglu reads it
It is not about finding ways to be noticed; it is about first having the substance worth noticing. Whether a post is given, whether others know you, is not in your hands. Today: dozens of résumés with no reply; one person blames the blind employers, another redoes every project in his portfolio.
家Other commentaries
Our base text is Zhu Xi's Collected Commentaries (above). Here are other commentaries side by side: for old commentaries, the first line of the sub-commentary with a link to the woodblock scan; for modern editions, one short quoted translation for comparison. The “compared with Zhu Xi” notes are written by Yikonglu, not quoted.
皇侃《论语义疏》Liang dynasty · Zhibuzu Zhai edition · juan 二
“云不患無位患所以立者，時多患無爵位，故孔子抑之也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 杨伯峻《论语译注》 | 立 | word sense | fairly sure | 杨据立位通用解释为任职条件，朱释所以立乎其位者；均转向自身可任职、可见知的实质，不是抱怨无官位。 |
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | same | fairly sure | 同以求在己之才德、可立其位可为人知之实为重，而不患无位无人知；钱明说不避位亦不汲汲求位。 |
核Check every citation
Every commentary line quoted in the video: the original wording, who said it, and the page in the base edition. “Paraphrase” marks our summary, not the commentator's words. About this edition
| Quoted text | Source | Page |
|---|---|---|
| “所以立，谓所以立乎其位者。可知，谓可以见知之实” | Zhu Xi's commentary | page 56 |
| “君子求其在己者而已矣” | Cheng Yi, quoted by Zhu Xi | page 56 |
页Pages of the base edition
Yikonglu, Analects Li ren (Book 4) 4.14 “Worry not about having no post, but about what you stand on”, https://yikonglu.com/en/lunyu/li-ren/14.html, version 2026-11-04.Last checked: 2026-11-04. Changes are logged on theerrata page.
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