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人非生而知之者，孰能無惑

简人非生而知之者，孰能无惑 · 繁人非生而知之者，孰能無惑

Mandarin · pinyin rén fēi shēng ér zhī zhī zhě , shú néng wú huò

Knowledge is not innate to man, how can we overcome doubt?
We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity? (i.e. without guidance from a teacher - Tang dynasty essayist Han Yu 韓愈 Hán Yù)

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Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
非: fēi · not, negative, non-; oppose; Kangxi radical 175
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
而: ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
知: zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
者: zhě · that which; he who; those who
孰: shú · who? which? what? which one?
能: néng · to be able; can, permitted to; ability
無: Look up this written character
惑: huò · confuse, mislead, baffle; doubt
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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