“Superior people look within, common people seek outside.” (Analects, 15.20)

子曰。君子求諸己。小人求諸人。
The Master said, “Superior people look within, common people seek outside.”

子曰 (Zi yue) The Master said

君子 (jūn zǐ) Superior people. Literally “honorable masters”.

求諸己 (qiú zhū jǐ) Search within oneself. Literally: “seek every oneself”.
Note: 諸 appears in several idiomatic phrases where the meaning of “every/all” doesn’t really make much sense. This appears to be one of those cases.

小人 (xiǎo rén) Common people. Literally: “little people”.

求諸人 (qiú zhū rén) Search outside oneself. Literally: “seek every people”.
Note: see note above for 求諸己.

For the entire text of the Analects in the original Chinese with accompanying translation, check out Charles Muller’s excellent website: http://www.acmuller.net/con-dao/analects.html.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.