Q0295

Zhu Xi

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The clearer the knowing, the more earnest the practice; the more earnest the practice, the clearer the knowing.
Thinker Zhu Xi
School Neo-Confucianism
Source Zhuzi Yulei
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Zhuzi Yulei, within the tradition of Neo-Confucianism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Zhu Xi's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Zhu Xi. (n.d.). The clearer the knowing, the more earnest the practice; the more earnest the practice, the clearer the knowing. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0295

MLA: Zhu Xi. “The clearer the knowing, the more earnest the….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0295.

Chicago: Zhu Xi. “The clearer the knowing, the more earnest the….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0295.

Same thinker

More from Zhu Xi

  1. I ask the channel how it can be so clear — because fresh water keeps flowing from its source.
  2. To extend knowledge lies in investigating things: if one wishes to extend one's knowledge, one must approach things and exhaust their principle.
  3. Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing is called Constancy. The Mean is the right Way of the world; Constancy is its settled principle.

All quotations by Zhu Xi

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme