Translation - Analects of Confucius 1.16

子曰：「不患人之不己知，患不知人也。」

Zǐ yuē: “Bù huàn rén zhī bù jǐ zhī, huàn bù zhī rén yě.”

Translation Process:
The Master said: "Do not worry (if) people do not know one's self; worry (about) not knowing people."

Polished Version:

The Master said: “I do not worry I do not worry that people do not know myself. I worry that I do not know the people."

Philosophical Notes:
This is a great example of the Confucian concern with fame versus respect. Confucius' point throughout the Analects is that effective governance is different from simply gaining fame or status. One's status as nobility is no guarantee of skillful governing. Confucius argues throughout that knowledge, study, and respect are foundations of successful social mediation. The reason these values are important are twofold: not only are knowledge and skill useful in running a government, but they also establish a positive reputation for the Sage. The Sage will ultimately be tested in his ability to uphold this reputation, and so the Sage must be ready.

Confucius recognizes the danger of seeking fame for its own sake, and warns against that here in this passage. The latter half is slightly more ambiguous - does he mean literally not knowing people? Does he mean lacking a knowledge of humanity or human nature in general? Or does he mean not recognizing people who have established themselves through merit? In all honesty it may be some combination of all three. A good Confucian sage functions by knowing the needs and desires of others so he can coordinate social structures to meet the needs of the many. In this manner the Sage works to avoid disrespecting or neglecting any member of the community. This kind of work requires attention to personal development and disposition, to the skills and personalities of the people under the Sage's care.

Translation Notes:

This is a fun passage because we can demonstrate several steps between the original Chinese and a finished translation. First I provide a pinyin Romanization. While not necessary I find it useful when dealing with unfamiliar characters. Making a pinyin translation from sight is also good practice for reviewing characters and tones. The next step is making a rough or blocked out translation. I do this so I can experiment with syntax and emphasis. Reading Confucius is like reading poetry, where the structure provides clues about how to understand the passage.

As we can see here, this entire passage is a great example of antimetabole (juxtaposing two phrases with similar wording but opposite meaning). In this case the literal shifting of the word order reflects the shifting perspective in moral order between the first passage and the second. We see antimetabole frequently in Chinese thought (ex: “He who speaks does not know, he who knows does not speak.” I suspect this happens because much of the cannon is concerned with drawing contrasts between different types of behavior. The compact nature of Classical Chinese also makes it easier to place words in close contrast.

I put a “polishd version” in here to demonstrate how much shifting around is actually possible in translation.

On a final note - this is the final passage from Chapter 1! I plan to keep working on this, but we may also do selections from the Dao De Jing along the way. The two are wonderful in juxtaposition to each other, and the contrast brings out some great similarities between the two works and systems of thought (if systems they ever were, yet systems we make them be).