Chinese idioms from the Dao De Jing
自知之明 (zì zhī zhī míng)
Reworked from chapter 33
自知之明 (zì zhī zhī míng), “the clarity of knowing oneself”, reworks “knowing yourself is clarity” in chapter 33 of the Dao De Jing and means seeing one's own worth and limits clearly.
Character by character
| 自 | zì | oneself, by oneself |
|---|---|---|
| 知 | zhī | to know |
| 之 | zhī | of, 's (linking particle) |
| 明 | míng | clarity, insight; clear |
| 自知之明 | The ability to see oneself clearly, above all one's own limits. | |
Where it comes from
The idiom is not in the text as such: it reworks the line 自知者明.
-
知人者智，自知者明。
Knowing others is wisdom; knowing yourself is clarity.
How the meaning moved
Chapter 33 opens with a pair: “Knowing others is wisdom; knowing yourself is clarity.” (知人者智，自知者明). The idiom takes the second half, 自知者明, “the one who knows himself is clear”, and turns it into a noun phrase: 自知之明, “the clarity of knowing oneself”. The chapter goes on in the same way: “Overcoming others takes force; overcoming yourself is strength.” Each time, the outward kind is good, and the inward kind is better.
Han Feizi, in the chapter 喻老 that explains the Laozi with stories, makes the same point and cites it as 自見之謂明, “seeing oneself is called clarity”: the hard part of knowing, he says, is not seeing others but seeing oneself (知之難，不在見人，在自見).
Today 自知之明 is one of the most common idioms in Chinese, and it is mostly used in the negative: someone who 没有自知之明 overrates himself. The saying 人贵有自知之明, “what people should value is knowing themselves”, is a frequent piece of advice.
Using it today
-
他总觉得自己什么都行，真是没有自知之明。
tā zǒng jué de zì jǐ shén me dōu xíng, zhēn shì méi yǒu zì zhī zhī míng.
He always thinks he can do anything: he really doesn't know himself.
-
人贵有自知之明，知道自己的不足，才能不断进步。
rén guì yǒu zì zhī zhī míng, zhī dào zì jǐ de bù zú, cái néng bù duàn jìn bù.
What matters is knowing yourself: only when you know your shortcomings can you keep improving.