仁者は憂えず jinsha wa ureezu The Benevolent Have No Worries
仁者は憂えず (jinsha wa ureezu), the humane are not anxious, is the middle clause of a three-clause line in the Analects of Confucius, and the one the Japanese leave out when they shorten the line, from the Noh play Yashima of about 1430 to a Meiji political speech.
Abstract
仁者は憂えず, jinsha wa ureezu, the humane are not anxious, is the middle clause of a line from the Analects of Confucius, between 知者は惑わず, the wise are not perplexed, and 勇者は懼れず, the brave are not afraid. The line stands twice in the canon: bare, as a saying, in book nine (子罕), where this clause is second, and framed as the Master's own confession in book fourteen (憲問), where it comes first. It is the clause the Japanese proverb form leaves out: the Noh play Yashima of about 1430, Chikamatsu in 1722 and Itagaki Taisuke in 1882 quote the first and third without it, while the Tale of the Soga Brothers, the dictionaries' first citation for the line, carries all three. The Japanese dictionaries give it a reason the line does not state: the humane are not anxious because they rest in Heaven's decree.
Overview
The text. 知者は惑わず, chisha wa madowazu, the wise are not perplexed; 仁者は憂えず, jinsha wa ureezu, the humane are not anxious; 勇者は懼れず, yūsha wa osorezu, the brave are not afraid. Twelve Chinese characters in three clauses of four, 知者不惑，仁者不憂，勇者不懼, and a Japanese sentence that reads each clause aloud with a subject, a particle and a negative verb; the line stands twice in the canon, and the two places disagree on the order [1][2].
The sense. The clause names the humane one by what humaneness removes: anxiety. The Japanese dictionaries add a because: デジタル大辞泉 仁者は心がおおらかで天命に安んじているから、何事にも心配することがない, the humane are large-hearted and at peace with Heaven's decree, so nothing worries them, and 精選版日国 心がひろく天命に安んじるから, because they are broad of heart and rest in Heaven's decree [3]. The 1922 study quoted below gives the same reason, 天命を知り仁に安んじて, knows Heaven's decree and rests in humaneness [4], and Sun Chuo, in Slingerland's selection, another, One who is at ease in Goodness is constant in his joy, and therefore is free of anxiety, while Slingerland reads it beside 12.4, where the Good are free of worry because they examine themselves inwardly and find nothing to fault [5]. Lau's note to his never worries is about the future [6]. The reason is the readers'; the line says only that the humane are not anxious. What varies is where the clause stands. Book nine puts knowledge first and gives the clauses bare; book fourteen puts humaneness first and gives them as the three things the Master says he cannot do. Arthur Waley, in 1938, called the book-nine order a mere slip corrected by book fourteen [7]; the 1935 Japanese lecturer took the same order as Confucius putting knowledge first [8]. The Japanese editions read here print both places as they stand, and the dictionaries cite book nine as the source. The three are a triad well before any of these: Itō Jinsai reads the line through the three universal virtues, 達德, of the Doctrine of the Mean [9], and a 1911 study and the 1935 volume both call them 知仁勇の三德, the three virtues of knowledge, humaneness and courage [10][8].
The words. 仁者 is the one who has 仁, humaneness, the first Confucian virtue, which Legge renders virtuous here and benevolent elsewhere, and Waley really Good with a capital [1][7]. 憂う is to be anxious, to sorrow. The modern form is 憂えず; the Japanese witnesses read here that were printed before 1946 write 憂へず, and the Soga tale, in kana, しんしゃはうれゑず [3]. The line as words: the one who knows is not at a loss; the humane one is not anxious; the brave one is not afraid.
The text in English. The English tradition begins with James Legge's translation of 1861, which the Chinese Text Project prints beside the Chinese [1][11]; William Edward Soothill's of 1910 sets Legge beside Zottoli's Latin, Ku Hung-ming's English and Couvreur's French in its notes [12]; Arthur Waley's of 1938 silently restores the book-fourteen order and argues for it in a footnote [7]. Six translations since carry the line forward: D. C. Lau in 1979, Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont in 1998, Edward Slingerland in 2003, Burton Watson in 2007, David Hinton in 2013 and Annping Chin in 2014 [6][13][5][14][15][16]. The editions number the two places differently: the bare saying is IX.28 in Legge, Soothill and Waley, 9.29 in Lau, Ames, Slingerland, Hinton and Chin, and 9:30 in Watson; the framed passage is XIV.30 in Legge, Soothill, Waley and Watson, and 14.28 in the rest. For 憂, Legge's anxiety runs through Soothill, Ames and Rosemont and Watson; Lau, Slingerland and Hinton have worry, Chan no worry, Alexander sorrows, Waley unhappy, Giles care in 1907 and vexed in 1909, Chin vexation; and for 仁者 the words run from Legge's virtuous through benevolent, Waley's and Slingerland's Good, Chan's humanity and the humane of Watson, Hinton and Chin, to Ames and Rosemont's authoritative [17].
The historical record
The Analects, book nine (子罕). The three clauses stand alone, as a saying: 子曰：「知者不惑，仁者不憂，勇者不懼。」 Legge: The Master said, "The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear." This is the order the Japanese dictionaries cite as the source of all three proverbs [1][3].
The Analects, book fourteen (憲問). The same three clauses, framed and in a different order: 子曰：「君子道者三，我無能焉：仁者不憂，知者不惑，勇者不懼。」子貢曰：「夫子自道也。」 Legge: The Master said, "The way of the superior man is threefold, but I am not equal to it. Virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear." Zi Gong said, "Master, that is what you yourself say." Here humaneness comes first and the Master says he manages none of the three; his disciple answers that he has just described himself [2].
Fourteenth century. The Tale of the Soga Brothers (曾我物語), book one. The dictionaries' first citation for the line as a Japanese sentence, and it is already a saying: 知者はまどはず、しんしゃはうれゑず、勇者(よふしゃ)はおそれずと申せども, though they say the one who knows does not waver, the humane one does not grieve, the brave one does not fear. All three clauses stand, the verbs in kana, and と申せども, though it is said, which is how a proverb is quoted [3].
About 1430. The Noh play Yashima (八島). The dictionaries' first citation for the 智者 spelling, and the first witness that quotes the line in pieces: 智者は惑はす、勇者は懼れずの、彌猛心(やたけごころ)の梓弓, the wise do not waver, the brave do not fear: the fierce heart, the catalpa bow. The middle clause, 仁者は憂えず, is dropped, and the third is turned into a pivot on the warrior's heart [18].
1683 to 1705. Itō Jinsai 伊藤仁斎 (1627–1705), 語孟字義, in its appended essay 大學非孔氏之遺書辨, in the typeset of 1901. The Kyoto Confucian, arguing that the Great Learning is not a work of Confucius's school, sets the line beside the Master's four subjects as the whole of his teaching on progress in learning: 又曰。知者不惑。仁者不憂。勇者不懼。明此三者天下之達德。而進學之叙無出於此者也, He also said: the wise are not perplexed, the humane are not anxious, the brave are not afraid. This makes clear that these three are the universal virtues of the world, and that the order of advancing in learning goes no further than them [9]. Jinsai reads the book-nine order through the 中庸's three 達德, wisdom, humaneness and courage, and the modern English of his essay renders the line A person of wisdom has no doubts; a humane person, no worries; a courageous person, no fears [19].
1722. Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1653–1725), 心中宵庚申, the third act, in the typeset of 1944. The line in its two-clause proverb form, the middle clause dropped as in the Noh, spoken in the lovers' journey of a jōruri: ちしやはまどはずゆうしやはおそれぬ, the wise do not waver, the brave do not fear, which the edition's note refers to the Analects [20]. C. Andrew Gerstle's English of 2001: The wise do not waver, nor do the brave know fear [21].
1882. Itagaki Taisuke 板垣退助 (1837–1919), a speech on liberty, in the English of the Japan Weekly Mail of April 15, 1882. The proverb form in a political speech, translated as it was given: There is reason in all things. 'The wise man does not hesitate: the brave man does not fear.' Although there are many obstacles on that waste land of liberty which we are anxious to reclaim with your aid, yet staunch toil with hoe and plough will remove them all [22]. The same translation was reprinted in Walter Wallace McLaren's collection of Meiji government documents in 1914 [23]. The line had become, by then, a thing a statesman could quote in a stump speech and a newspaper could print in English without a gloss.
1907. 大江文城, 『儒教聖典』, a Meiji canon in Japanese. Both passages as a Meiji reader met them, a vernacular reading followed by the original and the chapter name. Book nine: 子のたまはく、知者は惑はず、仁者は憂へず、勇者は懼れず。〔原文〕子曰、知者不惑、仁者不憂、勇者不懼。((子罕)). Book fourteen: 君子の道三あるも我は能くするものなし。仁者は憂へず、知者は惑はず、勇者は懼れずと。子貢曰く、夫子自ら道ひ玉ふなりと。 The reading is the modern standard, character for character but for the kana [24].
1911 to 1935. Four books on Confucius. A 1911 study of Confucius and his teaching quotes the book-fourteen form and names its chapter, 「憲問篇」, and later calls the three 知仁勇の三德 [10]. A 1922 study numbers the book-nine line among the Master's sayings and glosses each clause: 知者は理を見る事明かで能く理非曲直を辯ずるから物事に惑はない。仁者は心寛かで天命を知り仁に安んじて其の樂を改めないから憂がない。勇者は、果斷義を見て必ず爲す剛毅の心がある故に物事に懼れない, the one who knows sees reason clearly and can tell right from wrong and crooked from straight, and so is not perplexed by things; the humane one is large-hearted, knows Heaven's decree, rests in humaneness and does not change his joy, and so has no anxiety; the brave one has the resolute and unbending heart that sees what is right and does it, and so fears nothing [4]. A 1928 vernacular Analects prints the line in book nine in the canon's order [25]; and a 1935 memorial volume for a teacher reads that order as a ranking: 孔子は、「知者は惑はず」と第一に知をおき、それから「仁者は憂へず。勇者は懼れず。」と、知仁勇の三德を述べました, Confucius put knowledge first, "the one who knows does not waver," and then set out the three virtues of knowledge, humaneness and courage [8]. Slingerland reads the framed form as a commonly cited maxim in the Confucian school by the time of book fourteen, and quotes Zhu Xi: The Master here criticizes himself in order to urge on others [5]. The National Diet Library's full-text search finds 仁者は憂へず, in the older spelling, in 265 of the public-domain books it reaches, dated 1883 to 1963 [26].
What is not a source. Nothing is set beside this line as a parallel; it is a canon line with an author, not a folk saying with parallels. The two places in the Analects are one text at two addresses, not two sources.
The three lines in English
1861. James Legge, The Chinese Classics, volume 1, the Analects, book IX. The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear. Three subjects, three abstract nouns [1]. Legge numbers the bare saying book IX chapter XXVIII and the framed passage book XIV chapter XXX, and his note to the second cross-refers: We have the greatest part of this par. in IX. 28, but the translation must be somewhat different [1][11]. Of the English below, perplexities or perplexed for 惑 is kept by the compilations that copy Legge and by Waley, Chan, Watson and Chin; the other translations each find a word of their own.
1882. Confucius and the Chinese Classics, compiled by A. W. Loomis, San Francisco. Legge's book-fourteen sentence carried into a popular reader, word for word: The way of the superior man is three-fold, but I am not equal to it. Virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear [27]. Loomis, Dawson in 1915 and Stevenson in 1944, the three compilations read here, all carry Legge.
1890. George Gardiner Alexander, Confucius, the Great Teacher, London. Under the heading On perfect qualities, a rendering of his own: The wise have no doubts. The virtuous no sorrows. The brave no fears [28]. Doubts for 惑 and sorrows for 憂 are, among the renderings of the Analects read here, the first to depart from Legge's perplexities and anxiety.
1906. Robert Kennaway Douglas, Confucianism and Taouism, London. Legge's sentence turned into the Master's own disclaimer: "I am not virtuous enough," he said, "to be free from anxieties; not wise enough to be free from perplexities; and not bold enough to be free from fear" [29].
1907. Lionel Giles, The Sayings of Confucius, Wisdom of the East, John Murray, London. The book-fourteen form: He is truly benevolent, and is free from care; he is truly wise, and is free from delusions; he is truly brave, and is free from fear.—Nay, replied Tzu Kung, these virtues are our Master's own; and in the printing of 1909 the book-nine form: The wise are free from doubt; love is never vexed; the bold have no fears [17]. Giles is the one translator on this page who prints delusions for 惑, and his love for 仁 is his own.
1910. William Edward Soothill, The Analects of Confucius, Shansi (Paragon reprint, New York, 1968), book IX chapter XXVIII, p. 456, and book XIV chapter XXX, pp. 688–689. The Master said: "The enlightened are free from doubt, the Virtuous are free from anxiety, and the brave from fear." and, framed, "There are three characteristics of the noble man's life, to which I cannot lay claim: being Virtuous he is free from care; possessing knowledge he is free from doubts; being courageous he is free from fear." "That is what you yourself say," said Tzu Kung. His notes set the earlier translators side by side, Legge, then Zottoli's Latin, prudens non ambigit, perfectus etc. fortes etc., Ku Hung-ming, Men of intelligence are free from doubts, and Couvreur, Un homme éclairé et prudent n'hesite pas [12].
1915. Miles Menander Dawson, The Ethics of Confucius, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, page 56. Legge's book-fourteen sentence under the heading Fearlessness, which Dawson says Confucius ever named as an attribute of the superior man [30].
1938. Arthur Waley, The Analects of Confucius, Macmillan (Vintage printing, 1989), book IX section 28, p. 144, and book XIV section 30, p. 188. The Master said, he that is really Good can never be unhappy. He that is really wise can never be perplexed. He that is really brave is never afraid. Waley silently restores the book-fourteen order, Goodness first, and says why in his footnote: In the original the first two clauses have become transposed. This is, however, a mere slip, as is shown by comparison with the parallel passage, XIV, 30, adding that Confucius always ranks courage below wisdom and wisdom below Goodness. At book XIV, section 30, he gives the framed form: The Master said, the Ways of the true gentleman are three. I myself have met with success in none of them. For he that is really Good is never unhappy, he that is really wise is never perplexed, he that is really brave is never afraid, Tzu-kung said, That, Master, is your own Way! His note on the disciple's reply: Usually taken as referring to Confucius's disclaimer ('I myself have met with success in none,' etc.) and meaning, 'So you yourself say; (but we know that is only due to your modesty, and do not take your words literally).' [7]
1944. Burton Egbert Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations, fourth edition, under Man. Legge's book-fourteen sentence, credited Confucius, Analects. Bk. xiv, ch. 30 [31]. Of the two quotation dictionaries read here, Stevenson's carries Legge and the Oxford of 2014 carries Chan.
1963. Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton University Press, page 42. The book-fourteen form, 14:30: The way of the superior man is threefold, but I have not been able to attain it. The man of wisdom has no perplexities; the man of humanity has no worry; the man of courage has no fear [32]. Humanity for 仁 is Chan's, and it is the rendering the Oxford quotation dictionary took over.
1979. D. C. Lau, The Analects, Penguin, IX.29 and XIV.28. The man of wisdom is never in two minds; the man of benevolence never worries; the man of courage is never afraid, with the notes about right and wrong, to the first clause, and about the future, to the second; and There are three things constantly on the lips of the gentleman none of which I have succeeded in following: "A man of benevolence never worries; a man of wisdom is never in two minds; a man of courage is never afraid." Tzu-kung said, 'What the Master has just quoted is a description of himself.' [6]
1993. Onuma Hideharu 大沼英治 with Dan and Jackie DeProspero, Kyudo: The Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery, Kodansha International, page 21. The line quoted by a master of Japanese archery as an old proverb: A wise man is never puzzled, a benevolent man is never troubled, and a courageous man is never afraid, glossed It means we must believe in ourselves [33]. A Japanese use of the line, given in English.
1998. Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr., The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, Ballantine, 9.29 and 14.28. The wise (zhi) are not in a quandary; the authoritative (ren) are not anxious; the courageous are not timid; and The path (dao) of the exemplary person (junzi) has three conditions that I am unable to find in myself: The authoritative (ren) are not anxious; the wise (zhi) are not in a quandary; the courageous are not timid. Zigong replied, This is the path that you yourself walk, sir [13].
2003. Edward Slingerland, Confucius: Analects, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, Hackett, 9.29 and 14.28, p. 166. The wise are not confused, the Good do not worry, and the courageous do not fear; his commentary quotes Sun Chuo, The wise are able to clearly distinguish between things, and therefore are not anxious. One who is at ease in Goodness is constant in his joy, and therefore is free of anxiety, and Miao Xie on the courageous, sees what is right to do and does it, without being intimidated by physical force or threats; and on 14.28, The description of the threefold Way of the gentleman here is a repeat of 9.29, and by the time of Book Fourteen may have become a commonly cited maxim in the Confucian school [5].
2007. Burton Watson, The Analects of Confucius, Columbia University Press, book 9 section 30 and book 14 section 30. The wise are never perplexed; the humane, never anxious; the brave, never afraid; and The Way of the gentleman has three characteristics that are still beyond me. The humane are never anxious; the wise, never perplexed; the brave, never afraid. Zigong said, Master, that is your own Way, with the endnote Almost identical to 9:30 [14].
2013. David Hinton, The Four Chinese Classics, Counterpoint, book 9 section 29 and book 14 section 28. The wise never doubt. The Humane never worry. The brave never fear. and "But that," protested Adept Kung, "is precisely the Way you've mastered." [15]
2014. Annping Chin, The Analects, Penguin, 9.29 and 14.28. The wise are never perplexed. The humane never suffer from vexation. The brave are never afraid., with Liu Baonan's gloss, examine all things with clear eyes and so they are not perplexed, and Mencius on supreme courage; and on 14.28, against the tradition that reads the Master's disclaimer as modesty, Qian Mu's view that only when a person perceives himself in this way will he keep on going [16].
2014. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, eighth edition, edited by Elizabeth Knowles, page 234. Under Confucius, Chan's book-fourteen sentence word for word, The man of wisdom has no perplexities; the man of humanity has no worry; the man of courage has no fear, credited Analects ch. 14, v. 30 [34].
Today. デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版日国 both carry 仁者は憂えず as a headword of its own, marked 「論語」子罕から, from the Analects, book nine, with the reason given above [3]; at kotobank it is the one clause of the three that stands alone as a headword. What a rendering must keep is the shape all three clauses share: one kind of person, and the one thing that person is free of.
A reading
仁者は憂えず is the clause the Japanese let go when they shorten the line, and one of the two whose place the canon's two passages dispute: book nine sets it second, book fourteen first, and Waley, ranking courage below wisdom and wisdom below Goodness, moves it to the head of the line in his English. The Japanese dictionaries name book nine. I read the clause as the line gives it, the humane are not anxious, and hold the dictionaries' because they rest in Heaven's decree as their reading, not the line's: it is a good reason, and it is not among the four characters.
References
- 論語, 子罕, §29, with James Legge's translation. Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/analects/zi-han
- 論語, 憲問, §28, with James Legge's translation. Chinese Text Project. https://ctext.org/analects/xian-wen
- 「仁者は憂えず」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 曾我物語), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/仁者は憂えず-537672
- 『孔子と其思想及教義』, 1922, printed pp. 223–224. National Diet Library pid 969299, scans 119 and 120. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/969299/1/119
- Edward Slingerland, Confucius: Analects, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, Hackett, Indianapolis, 2003, 9.29 and 14.28.
- D. C. Lau, The Analects, Penguin Books, London, 1979, IX.29 and XIV.28, with notes 110–112.
- Arthur Waley, The Analects of Confucius, Macmillan, New York, 1938; Vintage Books printing, New York, 1989, pp. 144 and 188. Also Internet Archive in.ernet.dli.2015.174971. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.174971
- 『留送余影：川合信水先生』, 1935, printed p. 79. National Diet Library pid 1281290, scan 48. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1281290/1/48
- 伊藤仁齋『語孟字義』附「大學非孔氏之遺書辨」, in 井上哲次郎・蟹江義丸編『日本倫理彙編』巻之五, 育成会, 1901. National Diet Library pid 1913285, scan 37. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1913285/1/37
- 『孔子及孔子教』, 1911, printed pp. 29 and 99. National Diet Library pid 753240, scans 24 and 60. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753240/1/24 · https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753240/1/60
- James Legge, The Chinese Classics, vol. 1, Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean, Trübner, London, and at the author's, Hong Kong, 1861, book IX ch. XXVIII and book XIV ch. XXX.
- William Edward Soothill, The Analects of Confucius, Shansi, 1910; Paragon Book Reprint, New York, 1968, pp. 456 and 688–689.
- Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr., The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, Ballantine Books, New York, 1998, 9.29 and 14.28.
- Burton Watson, The Analects of Confucius, Columbia University Press, New York, 2007, 9:30 and 14:30.
- David Hinton, The Four Chinese Classics: Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, Analects, Mencius, Counterpoint, Berkeley, 2013, Analects 9 §29 and 14 §28.
- Annping Chin, The Analects, Penguin Books, New York, 2014, 9.29 and 14.28.
- Lionel Giles, The Sayings of Confucius, Wisdom of the East, John Murray, London, 1907, and the printing of 1909. Internet Archive the-sayings-of-confucius and the-sayings-of-confucius-1909. https://archive.org/details/the-sayings-of-confucius
- 「智者は惑わず勇者は懼れず」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 (初出 謡曲・八島)・ことわざを知る辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/智者は惑わず勇者は懼れず-565814
- Itō Jinsai, The Meaning of Terms in the Analects and Mencius, translated by John A. Tucker, in Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck and Arthur E. Tiedemann, editors, Sources of Japanese Tradition, second edition, volume 2, Columbia University Press, New York, 2005, the section "The Great Learning Was Not by Confucius".
- 近松門左衛門『心中宵庚申』, in 『近松世話物全集』, 1944, the text at scan 244 and the editor's note at scan 249. National Diet Library pid 1150814. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1150814/1/244
- Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Love Suicides on the Eve of the Kōshin Festival, in Chikamatsu: Five Late Plays, translated by C. Andrew Gerstle, Columbia University Press, New York, 2001, p. 319.
- "Mr. Itagaki on Liberty", The Japan Weekly Mail, Yokohama, April 15, 1882. Internet Archive jwm-bound-1882. https://archive.org/details/jwm-bound-1882
- Walter Wallace McLaren, editor, Japanese Government Documents, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. 42, part 1, 1914, pp. 613–614. Internet Archive in.gov.ignca.26053. https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.26053
- 大江文城 編, 『儒教聖典』, 1907. National Diet Library pid 753280, scans 124 and 53. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/753280/1/124
- 『国訳論語』, 1928, printed p. 72. National Diet Library pid 1188562, scan 48. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1188562/1/48
- National Diet Library next-generation full-text search on 仁者は憂へず, searched again 26 September 2026: 265 books, dated 1883 to 1963. https://lab.ndl.go.jp/dl/api/book/search?searchfield=contentonly&keyword=仁者は憂へず
- A. W. Loomis, compiler, Confucius and the Chinese Classics; or, Readings in Chinese Literature, San Francisco, 1882. Internet Archive confucius-and-the-chinese-classics-1882. https://archive.org/details/confucius-and-the-chinese-classics-1882
- George Gardiner Alexander, Confucius, the Great Teacher: A Study, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, London, 1890, the sayings under "On perfect qualities". Internet Archive confuciusgreatte00alexrich. https://archive.org/details/confuciusgreatte00alexrich
- Robert Kennaway Douglas, Confucianism and Taouism, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1906. Internet Archive cu31924029166374. https://archive.org/details/cu31924029166374
- Miles Menander Dawson, The Ethics of Confucius, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1915, p. 56. Internet Archive theethicsofconfu00dawsuoft. https://archive.org/details/theethicsofconfu00dawsuoft
- Burton Egbert Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern, fourth edition, Dodd, Mead, New York, 1944, s.v. Man.
- Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1963, p. 42.
- Hideharu Onuma with Dan and Jackie DeProspero, Kyudo: The Essence and Practice of Japanese Archery, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1993, p. 21.
- Elizabeth Knowles, editor, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, eighth edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014, p. 234, s.v. Confucius.