The Original Quote:
子曰：“吾犹及史之阙文也，有马者借人乘之，今亡矣夫！”
Zǐ yuē: “Wú yóu jí shǐ zhī quē wén yě, yǒu mǎ zhě jiè rén chéng zhī, jīn wáng yǐ fú!”
English Translation:
“I myself could still find in historical records what was left blank by scribes—the lacunae of honest ignorance. In olden days, a man who owned a horse but knew not how to train it would lend it to another to ride. Now these practices are no more.”
Key Concepts Explained:
- 阙如 (quē rú): Literally “to leave a gap as it is” — the scholarly attitude of reserving judgment on matters one does not fully understand. It is a form of intellectual humility, opposed to pretending to know.
- 君子 (jūn zǐ): The “exemplary person” or “noble person” in Confucian ethics, one who cultivates virtue, including honesty and carefulness in learning.
- 礼 (lǐ): Ritual propriety or right conduct, which here extends to the proper way of handling knowledge: with reverence and truthfulness.
Cultural Context:
This passage from The Analects (Book XV, Chapter 26) reflects Confucius’s deep concern for scholarly integrity in an age of declining standards. In ancient China, official scribes (史, shǐ) would leave blank spaces in records when they encountered uncertain information, rather than fabricating answers. Confucius laments that this practice, along with the humility of a horse owner who admits his inability and seeks help, had disappeared by his own time. The saying underscores a core Confucian teaching: true wisdom begins with acknowledging one’s own ignorance. This principle—known as 阙如 (quē rú)—became a foundational attitude in Chinese classical scholarship, urging scholars to “suspend judgment” (存疑, cún yí) rather than risk misleading others through false certainty. Later commentators, from Zhu Xi to modern historians, have praised this as a model of scientific and ethical rigor, warning against the harms of dogmatism and intellectual arrogance.