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先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れ mazu jiko o shire shikashite ta o shire First Know Yourself Then Know Others

先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れ (mazu jiko o shire, shikashite ta o shire) is a precept of karate, first know yourself and then know others. Its first clause is in the National Diet Library's full text from 1901, and by 1902 it stood for Socrates' know thyself. This study follows it to Sun Tzu, whom Japanese quoted self-first by 1897, and into English from 1982.

Japanese Scroll of First Know Yourself Then Know Others (mazu jiko o shire shikashite ta o shire) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
First Know Yourself Then Know Others先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れmazu jiko o shire shikashite ta o shire

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れ, mazu jiko o shire, shikashite ta o shire, first know yourself, and then know others, is the fourth of Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍's twenty precepts of karate, a list in print by December 1934 and printed in 1938 with a commentary by Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和 that Funakoshi approved [1][2][3][4]. No dictionary has the precept, and it says what its words say [5][6][7][8]. Its first clause was standing Japanese before the list: in the National Diet Library's full text it is in print from 1901, and it served as the Japanese of Socrates' know thyself (from 1902, with the Greek beside it), in Buddhist and Zen talk, and as a heading in books on success and careers. The Greek has no first; the 先づ is the Japanese renderers'. The whole precept, the self first and then the other, has the shape of Sun Tzu's maxim on knowing the enemy and knowing oneself. The Chinese text puts the other first, Japanese writers quoted it in both orders, the self-first in print by 1897 and in an English–Japanese dictionary of 1911 as a Chinese maxim, and the precept takes the self-first order; the Keiō karate club's book of 1936 and Nakasone's commentary both set Sun Tzu beside it. 自己 is read jiko in every dictionary opened, and onore is the reading of 己. English has carried the precept since Richard Kim's The Classical Man, first printed in 1982.

Overview

The sense. First know yourself, and then know others. No dictionary at kotobank has an entry for the precept, so it is read from its words [5][6][7][8]. デジタル大辞泉 先ず, its first sense: はじめに。最初に, at the beginning; first [5]. デジタル大辞泉 自己, its first sense: おのれ。自分。自身, oneself; self [6]. デジタル大辞泉 而して: 前文で述べた事柄に並べて、あるいは付け加えて、別の事柄を述べるときに用いる。そうして。それに加えて, used to set another matter beside, or add it to, what the sentence before has said; and then; and besides [7]. デジタル大辞泉 他, its second sense: 自分以外の人。ほかの人。他人, people other than oneself; others [8]. 知れ is the imperative of 知る, to know. As words: first know yourself, and then, besides, know others. Nakasone's commentary, in its English of 2003, reads the precept through Sun Tzu: Karate practitioners must be completely aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and never become dazzled or blinded by conceit or overconfidence. Then they will be able to assess calmly and carefully the strengths and weaknesses of their adversaries, and create an ideal strategy [4].

The words. 先づ is the old spelling of 先ず, mazu, which the デジタル大辞泉 heads まず〔まづ〕 [5]. 自己 is a Sino-Japanese noun, headed じ‐こ in the デジタル大辞泉 and in the 精選版日本国語大辞典, which defines it おのれ。われ。自分。自身 and first cites it from the 家伝 of about 760 and from Dōgen's 正法眼蔵, 仏道をならふといふは、自己をならふなり, to learn the way of the Buddha is to learn the self [6]. JMdict gives 自己 the one reading じこ [9]. おのれ, onore, is how both dictionaries define 自己, and it is the reading of another word, 己: a song book of 1904 rubies 己 おのれ in a line of Sun Tzu [10], and a book on conduct of 1915, reprinted in 1936, rubies おのれ on 先づ已を知れ, first know yourself, written with the look-alike 已 and set right to 己 in the reprint [11][12]. So mazu onore o shire is the reading of 先づ己を知れ, a separate and older sentence, and the precept's 先づ自己を知れ is mazu jiko o shire; the English karate books write jiko from the first [13]. 而して is headed しこうして in both dictionaries, and the 精選版日本国語大辞典 enters しかして, shikashite, as a word of its own, written 而て or 然て; both are words of prose read from Chinese [7]. 他, ta, is others, and the 精選版日本国語大辞典 sets it against 自, the self [8]. The ruby the list itself gave its words is not settled (Notes).

The text in English. Kim's Know thyself then know another (1982) is the earliest English rendering the Internet Archive's full text returned for this history; the English of Nakasone's commentary (2003) reads First know yourself, then know others [13][4]. A rendering keeps the order and the imperative: the precepts are rules, and this one says which knowing comes first.

The historical record

The Greek, at Delphi. Plato's Protagoras (343b) says the sages inscribed at Delphi those maxims which are on every tongue, γνῶθι σαυτόν and μηδὲν ἄγαν, “Know thyself” and “Nothing overmuch” in Lamb's English [14]. The Greek is two words, know yourself, with no first.

Sun Tzu, and the Laozi. The third chapter of the 孫子, 謀攻, Offensive Strategy, closes 故曰：知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼不知己，每戰必殆, so it is said: know the other and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will not be in danger; not knowing the other but knowing yourself, you win one and lose one; knowing neither the other nor yourself, you are in danger in every battle [15]. The Chinese text puts the other first. The Laozi's thirty-third chapter sets the two knowings against each other and ranks them: 知人者智，自知者明, who knows others is clever; who knows himself is clear-sighted, and 王弼's commentary adds 未若自知者超智之上也, it does not match the one who knows himself, who is above cleverness [16].

1895 and 1897. Sun Tzu, self first, in Japanese. Japanese writers quoted Sun Tzu in his own order and also the other way round. In the National Diet Library's full-text index the other-first form 彼を知り己を知れば returns 3,014 items and the self-first forms 己を知り彼を知れ and 己を知りて彼を知 99 and 63, all years, searched on 7 October 2026 [17]; the self-first order is the minority form, and it is old. A book on nursing of 1895 has it [18]. At the leaf, a life of Bismarck of 1897 writes 兵法に曰はずや、己を知り彼を知れば百度戰て百度勝つと, does not the art of war say: know yourself and know the other, and you will fight a hundred times and win a hundred times? [19]. Two years earlier, in English, the Japan Weekly Mail of 20 April 1895, summarizing the Tokyo paper Nippon on the treaty with China, writes that China still regards Japan with supercilious contempt. The maxim, “Know thyself, first and thy neighbour afterwards” is entirely unappreciated by her [20]. What the Nippon wrote in Japanese is not settled; given the printings of 1897 and after, the self-first Sun Tzu is the likely original, and that is an expectation.

1900. To rule others. A magazine of May 1900 puts the self first twice in one sentence: whoever would rule others must first know himself, and whoever would beat an enemy must first look to himself [21].

1901 and 1902. Socrates. The oldest item the National Diet Library's full-text index returns for 先づ自己を知れ, searched oldest first, is a book of 1901 compiled by the 浩々洞, which gives the phrase in quotation marks as a call someone made [22]. In 1902 加藤玄智's outline of philosophy gives it to Socrates with the Greek beside it: ソークラテースが詭辯論者の感覺的經驗論を打破して、先づ自己を知れ(Γνῶθι σεαυτόν)との、認識の根本問題より、研究の步武を起し, Socrates, overturning the sophists' empiricism of the senses, began his inquiry from the root question of knowledge, “first know yourself” [23]. The Greek has no first; the 先づ is the Japanese. In the index 汝自身を知れ, know thyself, is the commoner Japanese for the same Greek, 14,869 items against 121 for 先づ自己を知れ, all years [17].

1904. A song on the soldier's rescript. A book of songs on the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers sets Sun Tzu in the self-first order, every character rubied: 己(おのれ)を知(し)りて彼(かれ)を知(し)る 百戰(ひやくせん)百勝(ひやくしよう)得(え)つべきぞ, know yourself and know the other: a hundred battles, a hundred victories, are yours to win [10]. 己 is read おのれ.

1911. A Christian, and a dictionary. 井口弥寿男's study of Christianity writes ソクラテスが『先づ自己を知れ』と叫びたるは千古の格言たるを失はずと雖も、彼自ら幾程か自己を知りし。先づ自己を知るは單に道德修養の首途たるのみならず、一切智識に進むべき第一步なり, though Socrates' cry “first know yourself” remains the maxim of all ages, how far did he know himself? To know oneself first is not only the threshold of moral cultivation but the first step toward all knowledge [24]. The same year, an English–Japanese dictionary of idioms under 新渡戸稲造's direction gives, under Triumph, he who at once knows others, will triumph as often as he contends, and for its Japanese 己を知り彼を知れば百戰百勝す(支那の格言), know yourself and know the other, and you win a hundred battles in a hundred (a Chinese maxim) [25]. By 1911 the self-first Sun Tzu was printed as the Chinese maxim itself.

1914 to 1935. Success and careers. The phrase is the fourth numbered heading in a book of advice of 1914 to young men choosing their aims, and in its reprints, rubied じこ [26]. At the leaf, a guide to finding a job and rising in the world of 1928 heads a section 二 先づ自己を知れ and begins 自覺！ 自分は何ういふ人間であるか、といふことを知るのは、まことに難しいことであつて, Self-awareness! To know what kind of person one is, is truly a hard thing [27].

1928 and 1929. Zen. A Buddhist book of 1928 gives the phrase to Dōgen: so the Zen master Dōgen said, first know yourself [28]. The collected works of the Zen master 釈宗演 (1929) carry 先づ自己を知れ as the heading of a talk, in large type and unrubied [29].

1915 to 1934. The self first, then the world or the other. The book on conduct of 1915 closes a chapter with the boxed line 先(ま)づ已(おのれ)を知(し)れ、然(しか)らば世(よ)も亦(また)知(し)り得(え)らるゝなり, first know yourself, and then the world too can be known [11]. A student magazine of February 1931 has an old writer cry to its readers: first know yourself, and then know the enemy, with the precept's 而して, nearly four years before the list is in print [30]. A book of 1934 titles three chapters 第二章 先づ己を知れ, 第三章 次に彼を知れ and 第四章 更に魂を知れ, first know yourself; next know the other; further, know the spirit [31].

1934 to 1938. The list. The twenty precepts are in print as 空手二十ヶ條 in 『空手研究』, its first number (December 1934), where the library's text gives the fourth as this precept, between the precepts on justice and on the mind's art before technique [2]. The Keiō University karate club's book of 1936 glosses the precept as essential in real fighting and sets beside it Sun Tzu's line in the Chinese order as an old saying, the highest rank of tactics [32]. Nakasone's 空手道大観 of 1938 prints the list with a commentary on each article, and the commentary heads the fourth with the 謀攻 chapter of Sun Tzu [3]. The Japanese encyclopedia gives the twenty from the frontispiece photograph of that book, dated 3 May 1938, and gives the fourth as 先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れ [1]. The commentary is Nakasone's: his preface, in the English of 2003, says The following text is comprised of short commentaries I have written on the twenty principles. Master Funakoshi has read and approved their content, and the English sets Sun Tzu as the article's epigraph and says Since ancient times, this famous passage has circulated widely among those training in the martial arts [4].

1945. After the war. In November 1945 馬場恒吾 writes that one who does not know where he himself stands cannot measure another's: first know yourself, and then you understand others [33].

After 1949. Inside karate. Funakoshi's own 空手道教範, in its edition of 1958, gives Sun Tzu among its maxims in the Chinese order, and the library's full text does not return the precept from it [34]. The karate books keep the precept with small changes: two give the first clause as knowing yourself rather than know yourself, with the modern spelling of first (遠山寛賢 1960; 坂上隆祥 1978), and the fifty-year history of the Hōsei University karate club (1985) writes 己 for 自己 [35][36][37].

The precept in English

English's own maxim. English had a self-first maxim of its own long before the karate books. Cocker's Accomplish'd School-master of 1748 has Know thyself first, and then begin to scan / The Imperfections [38], and Colin Rae Brown's Noble Love (1871) has First know thyself, and then an orbit choose [39].

1964. The mirror. Robert Newman's The Japanese: People of the Three Treasures (1964) sets Delphi beside Japan. After Delphi's Know Thyself it writes so the sacred mirrors of Japan say: “To know others, you must first know yourself.” and goes on to bid the reader look into the mirror and see what is there of beauty and ugliness [40]. It is not the precept, and no Japanese for it is given in what was read. It is a self-first maxim offered to English readers as Japan's, eighteen years before Kim.

1982. Richard Kim, The Classical Man. Mazu jiko wo shire, shikashite ta wo shire. Know thyself then know another [13]. It is the earliest English rendering the Internet Archive's full text returned for this history, and it romanizes 自己 jiko. The copy read is a later printing whose imprint page gives the first printing as 1982.

1990 to 2003. A karate club's manual of 1990, First know yourself, then know others later [41]. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters (1995), p. 82, in his own numbered paraphrase of the twenty: 4. First know yourself, and then know others. Funakoshi learned this from his Master Azato: “If you know yourself and know your opponents well, you will never lose.” [42]. The story is Stevens's, and his Azato speaks Sun Tzu in the self-first order. Stevens again in 2001, First know yourself, and then know others [43]. The English of Nakasone's commentary, 2003: First know yourself, then know others [4].

From 2015. Two English karate books, of 2015 and 2017, romanize the precept mazu onore o shire, shikashite ta o shire, reading 自己 as onore [44][45].

A reading

The precept is Funakoshi's by every tradition that carries it, and both of its halves were Japanese before the list. The first clause was Meiji Japanese for Socrates, set down with a first the Greek does not have, and it was a heading for the young man choosing a trade and a Zen master's talk. The whole precept, self before other, is Sun Tzu in the order Japanese had already given him and printed as the Chinese maxim by 1911. I read the 先づ as the precept's own point: it does not set the two knowings side by side, as the Chinese maxim does, but gives them an order, and the order is the Laozi's and the moral primers' rather than the battlefield's. Nakasone's commentary takes it back to the battlefield, and the words allow both. Signed, 典.

Notes

Counts are the index's. Every count here is the National Diet Library's full-text index on 7 October 2026, all years; it folds 先ず into 先づ and 自已 into 自己. In print from 1901 is that index's oldest item for 先づ自己を知れ, searched oldest first [17].

The list's ruby. The library's text of three printings of 先づ自己を知れ carries a ruby that reads じこ (1914, 1933) or most likely じこ (the 1934 list); the list's own reading is not settled [26][2].

Sources not seen

The pages of 『空手研究』 (1934), 『空手道集成』 (1936) and 『空手道大観』 (1938), which the National Diet Library serves only in Japan.

The 1935 空手道教範 in Japanese, which is not in the National Diet Library's digital collections.

The Japanese leader in the Tokyo paper Nippon of April 1895 that the Japan Weekly Mail summarized.

The first printing of Kim's The Classical Man (1982).

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「船越義珍」, § 松濤二十訓, Japanese Wikipedia, citing 仲宗根源和『空手道大觀』 (1938) 口絵写真. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/船越義珍
  2. 空手研究社 編, 『空手研究』 第1輯, 興武館, December 1934 (the month from the library's catalogue record), snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1027727
  3. 仲宗根源和 編著, 『空手道大観』, 東京図書, 1938, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1104139
  4. Gichin Funakoshi and Genwa Nakasone, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2003, the preface and chapter 4, read on the house's shelf; the catalogue record at Open Library. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19923775W
  5. 「先ず」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/先ず-550322
  6. 「自己」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/自己-518499
  7. 「而して」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/而して-518572
  8. 「他」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/他-556030
  9. JMdict (EDRDG), 自己, at jisho. https://jisho.org/search/自己
  10. 佐藤寛, 『勅諭軍歌』, 金港堂, 1904, scan 30. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/855575/1/30
  11. 井上如真, 『自己の為めに : 処世と修養』, 一書堂書店, 1915, scan 95. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/954956/1/95
  12. 井上如真, 『処世と修養自己の為めに』, 模範図書刊行会, 1936, scan 66. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1107059/1/66
  13. Richard Kim, The Classical Man, first printing 1982; the copy read is a later printing, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/classicalman0000rich
  14. Plato, Protagoras 343b, Burnet's Greek and W. R. M. Lamb's English, at the Perseus Digital Library. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0178:text=Prot.:section=343b
  15. 『孫子兵法』, 謀攻第三, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孫子兵法
  16. 『道德經』 (王弼本), 三十三章, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/道德經_(王弼本)
  17. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search, oldest first, 7 October 2026. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=先づ自己を知れ
  18. 村上純祥, 『看病人』, 1895, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/834255
  19. 吉川潤二郎, 『鉄血宰相伝』, 開拓社, 1897, scan 49. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/782409/1/49
  20. The Japan Weekly Mail, 20 April 1895, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/jwm-bound-1895.1-6
  21. 『二十世紀』, 二十世紀社, May 1900, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1550413
  22. 浩々洞 編, 『霊界之偉人』, 森江書店, 1901, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/778944
  23. 加藤玄智, 『哲学概論綱要』, 東洋社, 1902, scan 92. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/752880/1/92
  24. 井口弥寿男, 『基督教の研究』, 内外出版協会, 1911, scan 24. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/824305/1/24
  25. 新渡戸稲造 等監輯, 『英和俗語熟語故事大辞典』, 実業之日本社, 1911, scan 717. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/902975/1/717
  26. 活人社編輯局 編, 『黄金万能』, 活人社, 1914, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/951981
  27. 日本青年社 編, 『就職立身法』, 帝国中学会, 1928, scan 16. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1438608/1/16
  28. 今成覚禅, 『人間の宣言』, モナス, 1928, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1176686
  29. 『釈宗演全集』, 平凡社, 1929, scan 215. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1181313/1/215
  30. 『受験と學生』, 研究社, February 1931, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3554829
  31. 山田政一, 『天業恢弘論』, 大日本憂国奮発団本部, 1934, scan 2. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1035867/1/2
  32. 慶応義塾体育会空手部 編, 『空手道集成』, 1936, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1144879
  33. 馬場恒吾, 『平和と自由への驀進』, 高山書院, 1945, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1914756
  34. 船越義珍, 『空手道教範』, 日月社, 1958, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2486578
  35. 遠山寛賢, 『空手道大宝鑑』, 1960, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2491281
  36. 坂上隆祥, 『空手道型大鑑』, 1978, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12144582
  37. 『法政大学体育会空手部五十年史』, 1985, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13216994
  38. Edward Cocker, Cocker's Accomplish'd School-master, 1748, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_cockers-accomplishd-sc_cocker-edward_1748
  39. Colin Rae Brown, Noble Love, and Other Poems, Skeffington, London, 1871, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/nobleloveotherpo00brow
  40. Robert Newman, The Japanese: People of the Three Treasures, Atheneum, New York, 1964, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/japanesepeopleof0000newm
  41. Eugene Mitchell, Sempai Manual, 1990, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/SEMPAIMANUAL
  42. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1995, p. 82, read on the house's shelf; the record at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/threebudomasters0000stev
  43. John Stevens, Budo Secrets: Teachings of the Martial Arts Masters, Shambhala, Boston, 2001, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/budosecretsteach0000unse
  44. Kousaku Yokota, Shotokan Transcendence: Beyond the Stealth and Riddles of Funakoshi Karate, 2015, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/shotokan-transcendence-beyond-the-stealth-and-riddles-of-funakoshi-karate
  45. Yumi Boutwell and Clay Boutwell, Karate Vocabulary: A Martial Arts Handbook of 300 Essential Japanese Terms, 2017, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/karatevocabulary0000bout

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-15, citations (an earlier version)

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れ (mazu jiko o shire shikashite ta o shire)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/mazu-jiko-o-shire-shikashite-ta-o-shire.