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勇者は懼れず yūsha wa osorezu The Brave Have No Fears

勇者は懼れず (yūsha wa osorezu), the brave are not afraid, is the last clause of a three-clause line in the Analects. In Japan the whole line is quoted in the Tale of the Soga Brothers in the fourteenth century. This study follows the clause through Noh, Chikamatsu and the Meiji ethics books, and its English, which hardly varies.

Japanese Scroll of The Brave Have No Fears (yūsha wa osorezu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
The Brave Have No Fears勇者は懼れずyūsha wa osorezu

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Abstract

勇者は懼れず, yūsha wa osorezu, the brave are not afraid, is the last clause of a line from the Analects of Confucius, after 知者は惑わず, the wise are not perplexed, and 仁者は憂えず, the humane are not anxious, and it stands third in both of the line's places in the canon: book nine (子罕), where the clauses are bare, and book fourteen (憲問), where the Master confesses he manages none of them. In Japan the whole line is quoted in the Tale of the Soga Brothers, a work of the fourteenth century, whose copies read its subject yōsha; every two-clause form read here keeps this clause, with the first in the Noh play Yashima of about 1430, a proverb book of 1656, at least four plays of Chikamatsu and a Meiji political speech, and with the second in a Muromachi dictionary; and it stands alone in Kaibara Ekiken's precepts for warriors and in Meiji ethics books. The line gives no reason the brave are not afraid, and its oldest commentary passes the clause without a note; the readers who supply one tie courage to rightness, 義, from Miao Xie and Zhu Xi to Kumazawa Banzan and the modern Japanese dictionary. The English hardly varies on it: of the translations read here, only Ames and Rosemont's not timid leaves fear.

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 brave one by what courage removes: fear. デジタル大辞泉 glosses it, with the first clause, 勇気ある者はどのような事態にも臆することがない, one with courage does not flinch at any situation [3]. The line says nothing of why, and neither does its oldest commentary: He Yan's 論語集解 glosses the first two clauses and sets 勇者不懼 down with no note [4]. The reasons come later, and nearly all of them are rightness. Huang Kan's 論語義疏 has two: his own, 勇以多力爲用，故无怯懼於前也, courage works by great strength, and so does not shrink before anything, and Miao Xie's, 見義而爲，不畏強禦，故不懼也, sees what is right and does it, not dreading the strong and violent, and so does not fear [5], which is the note Slingerland translates [6]. Zhu Xi gives 氣足以配道義，故不懼, the spirit is enough to match the Way and rightness, and so there is no fear, calling the three clauses 學之序, the order of learning [7]; the words are Mencius's on the flood-like spirit, 其為氣也，配義與道 [8]. Kumazawa Banzan, in 1672, 勇は義の德なり, courage is the virtue of rightness [9]. The Japanese dictionaries carry the same reason in three forms: the 大字典 of 1917, 勇者は道義に合し、守る所あるを以ておそれずと云ふ意, the brave accord with the Way and rightness and have something they hold to, and so do not fear [10]; the 大日本国語辞典 of the same year, 勇者は正氣充實せる故に事變に際して恐るることなし, the brave are full of the upright spirit, and so do not fear in any crisis [11]; and 精選版日国 today, 勇気ある人は義によって決するから, because a person of courage decides by what is right [12]. The 1922 study quoted below has 果斷義を見て必ず爲す剛毅の心がある故に, has the resolute and unbending heart that sees what is right and does it [13], which is the Analects' own 見義不爲，無勇也, to see what is right and not do it is a want of courage [14]. D. C. Lau reads the clause through the same saying, the gentleman has to pursue that purpose fearlessly, and only "the man of courage is never afraid", and adds 14.4, A benevolent man is sure to possess courage, … A courageous man does not necessarily possess benevolence [15]; Chin sets beside the line Mencius's account of the courage Confucius called supreme, which goes forward against thousands only when it finds itself in the right [16], and Mencius sets that courage against a fighter's whose whole secret was 能無懼而已矣, being able to be without fear, and that is all [8]. The reasons are the readers'; the line says only that the brave are not afraid. Its place does not vary: third in both loci, and Waley's footnote says why it would, Confucius always ranks courage below wisdom and wisdom below Goodness [17]. What varies is the order of the two clauses before it. 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 [17]; the 1935 Japanese lecturer took the same order as Confucius putting knowledge first [18]. 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 [19], 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 [20][18].

The words. 勇者 is the one with courage. 精選版日国 enters it as ゆうしゃ, a person of courage, and gives ようしゃ beside it, at the word and at the proverb [21][12]; 普及版 字通 quotes the whole line under it [21]. The two readings are both old. The dictionary's quotation of the Soga tale writes よふしゃ [22], and its copies of 1627 and 1646 ようしや [23][24]; the Muromachi 文明本節用集 reads the word ユウシヤ in its entries of the line and ヨウシヤ in the book-fourteen passage [25]; the proverb book of 1656 rubies it ゆうしや [26], and Chikamatsu in 1722 writes it ゆうしや in kana [27]; and a book on the Noh of 1900 still rubies Yashima's 勇者 ようしや [28]. 懼る is to fear, and 懼 is the canon's character. デジタル大辞泉 enters the verb as 恐れる and marks 懼れる as a spelling outside the standard character table [29]. The witnesses read here divide on it: the Meiji canon, schoolbooks and dictionaries write 懼れず [30][31][11]; the proverb book of 1656 writes 恐れず [26], as do the typesets of Yashima and of Chikamatsu's play of 1717 [32][33][28][34]; and the kana spellings are をそれず (the Soga tale of 1627 and 1646, Banzan) or おそれず (Ekiken) [23][24][9][35]. The 文明本 reads the verb オソリズ, in the older conjugation that 精選版日国's note on the verb says survived in readings of Chinese texts [25][29]; Chikamatsu, in 1722, has おそれぬ [27]. 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][36]; William Edward Soothill's of 1910 sets Legge beside Zottoli's Latin, Ku Hung-ming's English and Couvreur's French in its notes [37]; Arthur Waley's of 1938 silently restores the book-fourteen order and argues for it in a footnote [17]. 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 [15][38][6][39][40][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 懼 the English barely moves: fear, fears or afraid in every translation read here, Ames and Rosemont's not timid the one departure; the subject runs from Legge's bold through brave to the man of courage of Chan and Lau [38]. Dawson set Legge's sentence under the heading Fearlessness [41].

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][22].

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 to fifteenth century. The Tale of the Soga Brothers (曾我物語), book one, in its kana text. 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 [22]. The dictionary dates the work to about the fourteenth century; the words it quotes are the kana text's, which the encyclopedia's entry takes to be a revision made near Kyoto in the early Muromachi period [42]. Two copies of the seventeenth century carry the line at the leaf, in the hunting scene where the brothers' father, Kawazu Saburō, struck by an arrow from ambush, takes up his bow again, sets an arrow, turns his horse and looks all about him: one the National Diet Library catalogues as 1627, and a print of 1646, both reading this clause ようしやはをそれず [23][24]. Where the dictionary's quotation spells the subject よふしゃ and the verb おそれず, both copies write ようしや and をそれず.

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 this one is kept and turned into a pivot on the warrior's heart [12]. The typeset texts of 1896, 1900 and 1927 print 勇者は恐れず where the dictionary's quotation has 懼れず, and the text of 1900 rubies the word ようしや [32][28][33]. The 謡抄, the commentary on the Noh texts compiled in 1595, read here in a print of the Keichō years, takes 智者ハマトハス勇者ハヲソレス as its headword and glosses it 智者不惑勇者不懼論語ニアリ, it is in the Analects [43].

Later fifteenth century. The 文明本節用集. A manuscript of the 節用集, the Muromachi dictionary 日国 dates before the 文明 era (1469–87), enters this clause in three entries of the line: the whole line in the book-fourteen order, 仁者不憂智者不惑勇者不懼; the book-fourteen passage whole; and the line without knowledge, 仁者不憂勇者不懼. It reads the verb ヲソリズ or オソリズ, and the subject ユウシヤ in the line and ヨウシヤ in the passage. They are read here in the index to its 1970 facsimile [25][44].

1638 and 1656. Two Edo proverb books. The 毛吹草, the haikai handbook of 松江重頼 with a preface of 1638, sets the three clauses down as three proverbs one after another, 仁者憂へず first, glossed with the Analects, then 智者は惑はず and 勇者は懼れず, as 藤井乙男's 1929 reprint of its proverb list prints them [45]. The 世話尽 of 1656 has the two-clause form as one proverb, 智者はまどはず勇者(ゆうしや)は恐(おそ)れず, between 智恵なき神にちゑつくる and 地体はすゞき [26].

1672. Kumazawa Banzan 熊沢蕃山 (1619–1691), 集義和書, book ten, in the typeset of 1901. The Yōmeigaku scholar quotes the line in Japanese and in another order of his own, knowledge, courage, humaneness, this clause second, and glosses each: 知者はまどはず。勇者はをそれず。仁者はうれへず。知は明の至なり。勇は義の德なり。仁は生の精なり, the one who knows does not waver; the brave one does not fear; the humane one does not grieve. Knowledge is the height of clarity, courage the virtue of rightness, humaneness the essence of life [9][46].

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 [19]. 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 [47].

1715 to 1722, and one play undated. Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1653–1725). The two-clause proverb, with this clause kept, in at least four of his plays. In 持統天皇歌軍法, first staged in 1715, the prince, shaken, cries it over a man who has died glaring at him: 智者は惑はず勇者は懼れず。冥路黃泉に到つても義有る勇者(ゆうしや)の忠を見よ, the wise do not waver, the brave do not fear: even on the dark road to the Yellow Springs, see the loyalty of a brave man who has rightness [48]. 文武五人男, which the 1896 editor could not date, opens its fourth part on it: 智者は惑はず。勇者は恐れぬならひとかや, the wise do not waver, and the brave, they say, are not afraid [49]. In 聖徳太子絵伝記, first staged in 1717, it comes at the moment the prince's arrow strikes Mononobe no Moriya: はつしと立つ、智者は惑はず、勇者は恐れず [34]. 心中宵庚申, 1722, the third act, in the typeset of 1944. 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 [27]. C. Andrew Gerstle's English of 2001: The wise do not waver, nor do the brave know fear [50].

1716. Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒 (1630–1714), 武訓, the precepts for warriors, in 文武訓 with a preface of 1716, in the typeset of 1911. The clause alone, as a warrior's maxim, with a line of Mencius after it: 氣の強弱は、人の生れつきによれども、勇にして節義を守る志は忘るべからず。勇者(ゆうしや)は、おそれず。又、勇士は、其かうべを失ふをわすれず, whether the spirit is strong or weak is a matter of birth, but the will to keep one's honor with courage must not be forgotten. The brave are not afraid; and the brave man does not forget that he may lose his head [35].

1880 to 1893. The Meiji ethics books. 西村茂樹's primer 小学修身訓, of 1880, gives the whole line in the book-fourteen order, ○仁者ハ憂ヘズ。智者ハ惑ハズ。勇者ハ懼レズ, in its chapter on setting one's will [31]. A collection of maxims of 1892, arranged by their number of characters, lists 知者不惑, 仁者不憂 and 勇者不懼 as three separate entries among its four-character sayings [51]; and a girls' ethics book of 1893 quotes this clause alone, 論語に「勇者ハ懼レズ」とあり, of the empress Jingū's campaign [52].

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 [53]. The same translation was reprinted in Walter Wallace McLaren's collection of Meiji government documents in 1914 [54]. 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 [30].

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 [20]. 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 [13]. A 1928 vernacular Analects prints the line in book nine in the canon's order [55]; 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 [18]. 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 [6]. The National Diet Library's full-text search finds 勇者は懼れず, in the older spelling, in 307 of the public-domain books it reaches, dated 1893 to 1963 [56]; its digital library's full text, which also reaches books readable only in Japan, returns 2,027 items for the same words, the oldest the primer of 1880 [57].

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][36]. 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 [58]. Loomis, Dawson in 1915 and Stevenson in 1944, the three compilations read here, all carry Legge.

1883. Wilhelm Lobscheid's English and Chinese Dictionary, revised and enlarged in Tokyo by 井上哲次郎. Legge's book-nine sentence word for word, The wise are free from perplexities; the virtuous from anxiety; and the bold from fear, tagged (C. A.), the Confucian Analects, beside 知者不惑，仁者不憂，勇者不懼, in a numbered list of sayings [59]. A dictionary printed in Tokyo gives the line in Legge's English.

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 [60]. 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" [61].

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 [62]. 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 [37].

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 [41].

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).' [17]

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 [63]. 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 [64]. 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.' [15]

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 [65]. 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 [38].

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, which is why he does not fear; 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 [6].

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 [39].

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." [40]

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: If, on looking within, one finds oneself to be in the wrong, then even though one's adversary be only a common fellow coarsely clad, one is bound to tremble with fear. But if one finds oneself to be in the right, one goes forward even against men in the thousands; 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 [66].

Today. デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版日国 carry this clause only with the first, as the one headword 知者は惑わず勇者は懼れず (精選版 spelling it 智者 and reading 勇者 ゆうしゃ or ようしゃ), both referring it to the Analects, book nine; kotobank has no headword for 勇者は懼れず alone [3][12]. The 大字典 of 1917 did enter it alone, as 〔勇者不懼〕 under 勇 [10]. 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

勇者は懼れず is the steadiest of the three clauses: third wherever the line stands in the canon, kept in every two-clause form the Japanese made of it, quoted alone by Ekiken and the Meiji ethics books, and rendered fear by nearly every translator. The line gives no reason, and its oldest commentary adds none. What its readers add is what courage is for, and they agree to a remarkable degree: Miao Xie's sees what is right and does it, Zhu Xi's spirit that matches rightness, Banzan's the virtue of rightness, the Japanese dictionaries from 1917 to today, and the Analects' own to see what is right and not do it is a want of courage. Mencius drew the line those readers are drawing, between a man who has merely learned not to fear and one who goes forward because he is in the right. I read the clause as it stands, the brave are not afraid, a person named by the one thing they are free of, and hold rightness as what the tradition, with one voice, has set behind it.

References

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Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

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

Checked · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-14, citations of the grouped history of the three clauses this page was split from — every item tested at its address; many resolve cleanly; a couple show minor snippet artifacts; the record's own character count for one quoted phrase was found wrong and corrected; the rest, all URLs, not openable

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 勇者は懼れず (yūsha wa osorezu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/yusha-wa-osorezu.