學然後知不足

简 学然后知不足 · 繁 學然後知不足
Mandarin · pinyin xué rán hòu zhī bù zú

Meanings

  1. to learn is to know one's ignorance (the Book of Rites 禮記 Lǐ jì)
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Characters in this entry

學
xué · learning, knowledge; school
然
rán · yes, certainly; pledge, promise
後
hòu · behind, rear, after; descendents
知
zhī · know, perceive, comprehend
不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
足
zú · foot; attain, satisfy, enough; Kangxi radical 156
学
xué · learning, knowledge; school
后
hòu · queen, empress, sovereign; (simp. for 後) behind, rear, after
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–2–4–1–4–2 · xue2 ran2 hou4 zhi1 bu4 zu2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

學然後知不足 · find source passages ↗ · 学然后知不足 · find source passages ↗

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學然後知不足 · xue2 ran2 hou4 zhi1 bu4 zu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 31,774
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record學然後知不足 学然后知不足 [xue2 ran2 hou4 zhi1 bu4 zu2] /to learn is to know one's ignorance (the Book of Rites 禮記|礼记[Li3 ji4])/