一孔录The video for this chapter is still in production. For now this page gives the original text, the facsimile page, a working translation and the commentary; the full reading follows when the video is out.
子曰：我非生而知之者，好古，敏以求之者也。The Master said: I was not born knowing. I love antiquity and am quick to seek it out.
What this chapter says
一孔按：孔子说自己不是生来就知道，是爱古代的东西、勤勉去求才知道。是实话，也是给人留了一条路：知不靠天生，靠求。常有人问：孔子说“我非生而知之者”，是谦虚还是实话？上面是一孔录的回答。
Yikonglu's reading of this chapter is in Chinese for now; the English version comes with the video.
白Plain Chinese
孔子说：我不是生下来就懂得道理的人，只是爱好古代的学问，勤勉急切地去求取罢了。
Draft plain-Chinese rendering following Zhu Xi; it will be checked when the chapter is covered.
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Close reading and checking
For readers who want to go deeper or check our work: key words in the commentary, what other commentators say, textual variants, the commentaries in their own words with facsimile pages, pronunciation and corrections. Tap a heading to open it.
常The common reading
孔子说“我非生而知之者”，是谦虚还是实话？
注Key words in the commentary
生而知之者，气质清明，义理昭著，不待学而知也。敏，速也，谓汲汲也。
核Zhu Xi's commentary, line by line
Zhu Xi's own words on each line of this chapter, each checked against the base-edition page. Other commentators are added when the chapter is covered. About this edition
| Line | Quoted text | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 子曰：我非生而知 | “生而知之者，气质清明，义理昭著，不待学而知也。敏，速也，谓汲汲也。” | page 99 |
| 子曰：我非生而知 | “孔子以生知之圣，每云好学者，非惟勉人也，盖生而可知者义理尔，若夫礼乐名物、古今事变，亦必待学而后有以验其实也。” | page 99 |
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 · 1750 Japanese woodblock edition · juan 四
“云我非生而知之者，知之，謂知事理也。”……
Compared with Zhu Xi
| Commentary | Point | Relation | Confidence | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 钱穆《论语新解》 | differs | fairly sure | 钱把非生知作实说、重古史经验与学习；朱仍称孔子生知之圣，分义理可生知与名物事变须学，不能说两家同认孔子全非生知。 |
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