Meaning of 人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？

We have prepared well for understanding the meaning of the third sentence of the most important classic of Confucianism： 《论语》: 人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？ To start, we will review the meaning of each Chinese character of it.

人: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2011/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day.html
It is drawing of a person.

不: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/09/blog-post_22.html
It means not.

知: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post.html 
It is composed of 矢 and 口, which represents the meaning of some expert teaching / sharing knowledge of archery and warring weapon. And here it is used to mean knowing / understanding. 

而: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/08/blog-post.html
It is a drawing of a lot of long beard, which represents the relationship of equality or similarity of things it connects.

不: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/09/blog-post_22.html
It means not.

愠 | 慍: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-post.html

It represents warming / heating up the heart, and is used to mean being angry or indignant.

不: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/09/blog-post_22.html

It means not.

亦: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/10/blog-post_28.html
It means same, as well or too.

君: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/02/learn-one-chinese-character-day_11.html

It is originally represent the person who holding the power and giving orders, which is eventually used to mean people with great heart or noble person.

子: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2011/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_26.html

It is used to mean baby mostly, and it is used to mean Love and Respect especially as it is after 君 here.

乎: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/07/blog-post.html

It means shout loudly, or it can be understood as modal particle.

Before you check out our answer below, please take the last chance to try to reason the meaning of the sentence "人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？" yourself.

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And here we go the answer:

Modern Chinese first: "不被人了解而不生气，这不就是君子吗？"

English next: "If a person can keep calm and patient while he is being misunderstood, is not he a noble gentleman?"

If you have a different mother tongue, you are welcome to provide translation for your own mother tongue. And of course if you have different translation for modern Chinese or English, you are welcome to provide your version as well.

That is all for today, let us enjoy again another Chinese calligraphy of "不知而不愠，不亦君子乎"

学而时习之，不亦说乎？有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？人不知而不愠，不亦君子乎?

愠 | 慍

 After learning 温 | 溫, we now should be able to guess the meaning of our character today: 愠 | 慍, which is composed of 忄and 昷. 

We have known that忄means heart (心), whose details can be found at https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2015/11/learn-one-chinese-character-day_20.html. And 昷 has the meaning of warming / heating up. 

Thus忄and 昷 together have the aggregated meaning of warming / heating up the heart, which logically represents "burning angry within the heart".

Let us examine the evolution history of 温 | 溫 to understand it better:

evolution history of 愠

From its Bronze script, we can tell that 愠 used to be same character as 昷, eventually Chinese ancestors added heart to 昷 to emphasize that 愠 is related to feelings.

愠 | 慍 means angry or indignant as adj, and resent or become angry as verb.

That is all for 愠 | 慍, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 愠 | 慍 inside:

参谋蜀耆英，棠阴满三郡。开怀接儿辈，色不见喜愠。
清朝贵老成，故家多黄训。佳气引春帆，长安天日近。 

温 | 溫

Today we are moving on to a new character 温 | 溫, by which we can prepare ourselves to understand 愠 better.

Looking at its Simplified version 温, we can tell that it is composed of water （氵）, sun (日) and basin (皿), which we all have learned before. 

Comparing to its Traditional version 溫, the only difference is to replace 日 in 温 with in 溫.

So what does 温 | 溫 mean by having water in a basin plus 日 or ? Probably its ancient scripts can provide more clues, which is shown below:

evolution history of 温

Now we can see that its Oracle script  looks like to represent a person () is standing inside a basin () with some extra dots around him (). What could be the possible scene here? Based on the actual meaning of 温, it is most likely as what shown below:

温 | 溫

when it came to Bronze script: , the upper part was changed to , which is likely to represent "wrapping somebody (and bath him)" in the basin.

Starting from later stage of Bronze script, 温 | 溫 followed the path of  but added water to re-introduce that 温 | 溫is related to water.

With enough preparation, now we can start to reason the meaning of 温 | 溫 - a drawing of bathing a person (most likely a baby) in a basin with warm water.

Chinese ancestors used this drawing to represent the meaning of warm. It is also interesting for us to realize that replacing in 溫 with 日 in 温 during simplification makes perfect sense.

So 温 | 溫 means warm, for example 温水.

And 温 | 溫 can used as verb, which means make or become warm, for example 温习.

And 温 | 溫 is also used to describe somebody as warm and gentle as warm water. for example 温柔.

That is all for 温 | 溫, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 温 | 溫 inside:

温不增华，寒不改叶

知

 We have learnt the most important two sentences of 《论语》: 学而时习之，不亦说乎？有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？ Let us move on the prepare ourselves for its next sentence: 不知而不愠，不亦君子乎？

Our character today is thus 知. With our knowledge already have, 知 can be easily decomposed to 矢 and 口. What could be the possible combination meanings?

a. the arrow (矢) shot at the entrance or the target (口)?
b. Talk (口) about the arrow or archery (矢)?

Before we jump to answers, let us examine the evolution history of 知 to help our understanding:

知 evolution history

From its Oracle script , we can tell that besides arrow  and mouth , there is another component: .  is one ancient Chinese weapon, which probably looks like:

戈

Now it should be clear that candidate b is the correct answer.  script of 知 is a drawing to represent (someone) talking / teaching archery and how to use weapon.

when it comes to later stage of Bronze script , is simplified by removing . And eventual  becomes what we write today 知. Below is a vivid scene of what 知 represents:

知

So 知 originally represents the meaning of some expert teaching / sharing knowledge of archery and warring weapon. It thus has the meaning of knowing or mastering, for example 知道, and know-how or knowledge, for example 知识.

That is all for 知, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 知 inside:

知书达礼；勤俭持家。

Meaning of 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？

As what we have mentioned in our last post, today we try to understand the meaning of the second sentence of the most important classic of Confucianism： 《论语》: 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？ To start, we will review the meaning of each Chinese character of it.

有: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2015/12/learn-one-chinese-character-day_29.html
It is the drawing of a hand holding a piece of meet, which mean have / there is.

朋: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/10/blog-post.html 
It is drawing of two strings of beautiful shells hanging in parallel, which is eventually used to represent friends sharing same value and moral standard.  

自: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/11/blog-post_28.html 
It is a drawing of nose, which means self or from.

远 | 遠: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2021/04/blog-post.htm
It is drawing of somebody preparing cloths for a long distance trip, which means far away.

方: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2021/05/blog-post.html 
It means a square shaping and is also used to represent border of a country / county.

来: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2021/07/blog-post.html
It is the drawing a wheat, and is eventually used to represent come.

不: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/09/blog-post_22.html
It means not.

亦: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2019/10/blog-post_28.html
It means same, as well or too.

乐 | 樂: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2016/01/learn-one-chinese-character-day_7.html

It is originally a drawing of Chinese music instruments, but eventually is used to represent happy and enjoy.

乎: https://xiongzou.blogspot.com/2020/07/blog-post.html

It means shout loudly, or it can be understood as modal particle.

Before you check out our answer below, please take the last chance to try to reason the meaning of the sentence "有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？" yourself.

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And here we go the answer, which is probably different than what you can get from other sources, but we think it is a better translation:

Modern Chinese first: "如果有一个师出同门的知己不远千里来【拜访】，这难道不是让人非常开心的事情吗？"

English next: "If there is a bosom friend coming from far away land paid a visit to us, is it not an very delightful moment?"

If you have a different mother tongue, you are welcome to provide translation for your own mother tongue. And of course if you have different translation for modern Chinese or English, you are welcome to provide your version as well.

That is all for today, let us enjoy again another Chinese calligraphy of "有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎"

子曰：有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？

来 | 來

Today we reach the last Chinese character 来 that is needed to know before we can understand the next sentence of 《论语》: 有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎？

Looking at 来 and its traditional counterpart 來 itself, there is no much information provided. However recalling 木 we have learnt, 来 |  來 seems to be related to plants with roots drawn at the bottom. To confirm our guess, let us examine its ancient scripts:

evolution history of 来

Now when we look at the Oracle script of 来: or , it is quite clear that it is some kind of herb. But why not grass you might ask? It is because we have already known that grass is represented by character 草.

If you knew the meaning of the Traditional Chinese character 麥, you would have realized that 来 | 來 has some connection with 麥, which is shown below:

wheat

Does not  vividly outline the ripe wheat with its ears hanging down in above picture?  

Yes, 来 | 來 originally represents the meaning of 麦 | 麥, which is wheat.

As you can see that eventually evolved to Clerical script, which is almost the same as its Traditional character we used now: 來.

Wheat is an agriculture crop Chinese ancestors imported from foreign countries, and wheat is taken as a blessing gift from heaven which helped to feed Chinese people for centuries. 

来 | 來 was then borrowed to mean comes from or arrives from. For example 来访.

And 来 | 來 can also be used to represent the meaning of to come or to arrive. For example 未来.

As mentioned above, since 来 | 來 has been used to represent different meaning other than wheat, Chinese ancestors created a new character 麦 | 麥 for it.

That is pretty much all for 来 | 來, let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 来 | 來 inside:

盛年不重来，一日难再晨；
及时当勉励，岁月不待人。

方

 Today we move on our learning journey to 方. This is a very simple Chinese character that provides little clue of what it is. Let us examine its ancient scripts to get more clues:

evolution history of 方

From its Oracle script , we can tell that it can be divided into parts of and . It is believed that represents man, and represents an ancient Chinese shackles used to exile criminals, as shown below:

方

方 originally means exile criminals into desolated border of a country.

From its original meaning, 方 is extended with following meanings:

1. border or side: for example: 四方形

2. Chinese ancestors believes that Heaven is round, while earth is a square at its border, 方 thus contains meaning of square: for example: 方方正正

3. a place at border means it is far away from central of the country, 方 has the meaning of local, for example 方言

4. 方 thus also has the meaning of a place or a county, for example 地方

5. exile to borders means travel to that direction: for example 方向

That is pretty much all for 方, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 方 inside:

大风起兮云飞扬, 威加海内兮归故乡, 安得猛士兮守四方.