鑑遠 · 不出戶知天下
Jiàn Yuǎn
Classical Chinese Text
不出户，知天下；不窥牖，见天道。其出弥远，其知弥少。是以圣人不行而知，不见而明，不为而成。
Translation & Meaning
不必邁出家門，便能通曉天下的常理；不必窺望窗外，便能洞見自然的法則。 心神越是向外奔逐馳求，對生命本源真知的體悟反而越少。 因此聖人無需外逐奔波而洞悉根本，無需憑感官表象而心境澄明，無需妄作強求而萬事順應天成。
Linguistic & Character Analysis
- 不 (bù): not / un- / without
- 出 (chū): emerge / issue forth / originate
- 户 (hù): classical character (hù)
- 知 (zhī): know / distinguish / recognize
- 天 (tiān): heaven / nature / cosmos
- 下 (xià): under / earthly realm / humble
- 窥 (kuī): classical character (kuī)
- 牖 (yǒu): classical character (yǒu)
- 见 (jiàn): see / display / manifest
- 道 (dào): The Way / Logos / to speak
- 其 (qí): its / their / his / her
- 弥 (mí): classical character (mí)
- 远 (yuǎn): classical character (yuǎn)
- 少 (shǎo): classical character (shǎo)
- 是 (shì): this / therefore
- 以 (yǐ): in order to / by means of
- 圣 (shèng): sage / enlightened one
- 人 (rén): person / human
- 行 (xíng): practice / teach / walk
- 而 (ér): yet / and / but
- 明 (míng): classical character (míng)
- 为 (wèi): act / deem / become
- 成 (chéng): complete / fulfill
Commentary
青禾散人評注：萬事萬物同構於一理。若心無定見，縱使閱盡萬卷碎片資訊，亦是「其出彌遠，其知彌少」；反觀自心本性，天道已在方寸之間。