不言実行 fugen jikkō Action Before Words

Do the thing and do not announce it: a word for resolve kept quiet, the virtue of the person who carries out what they have decided and lets the doing speak. Its model is the Analects, where Confucius, asked what makes a gentleman, answers that he acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions, which is what Action Before Words translates; its best gloss is a commentator's one line, 不言実行 prizes not the silence but the doing. It has a pun, 有言実行, say it and do it, for the person who would rather promise out loud, and which of the two you live by is yours.

不言実行 translates as "Action Before Words; Actions speak louder than words; No talk, all deeds" and is a combination of the words 不言 (read fugen) meaning "Silent" and 実行 (read jikkō) meaning "Action".

A Japanese-made word, born as the first Katsura cabinet's watchword about 1901 on the model of the Analects' line that a gentleman acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.

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