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What Does 「吾日三省吾身」 Mean in the Analects?
When you search 吾日三省吾身, “three self-examinations,” or “I daily examine myself on three points,” you usually want the saying itself—not a full Zeng Zi résumé. On this site the line lives in Hsio R. 1.4: Zeng Zi (Tsang) names three daily checks on loyalty for others, sincerity with friends, and practised teaching. Hold the phrase as a conduct door; keep source, guide, and Legge apart; refuse invented “background” the live page never gives.
The phrase you searched—and the live door
You land here because the four characters travel farther than any one chapter label. Still, the live door is fixed: Hsio R. 1.4 on this site. If you want the person placed among other disciples before you open the saying, Who Was Zeng Zi in the Analects? sketches him lightly; the people index tags him simply as Zeng Zi. Those doors are maps, not money CTAs. Your work on this Note is to stay with 吾日三省吾身 until the three points are clear—and to leave sibling sayings (heavy burden, one-thread restatement, careful funerals) for other pages that own them.
The three points, in order
You should keep the triad in the order the source gives, and invent no fourth check. First: 为人谋而不忠乎—whether, in business done for others, you may have been not faithful. Second: 与朋友交而不信乎—whether, with friends, you may have been not sincere. Third: 传不习乎—whether you may have not mastered and practised what your teacher transmitted. When you ask “did I examine myself?” you ask these three relations before you ask whether your reading list grew. The live guide and Legge both hold the same three doors; they do not add a productivity metric, a career KPI, or a fourth moral slogan. Your honesty is the closed set of three.
Source · guide · Legge—how the layers differ
You should never merge the three layers into one smoother “modern paraphrase.” On the live page, the source Chinese includes 吾日三省吾身, 为人谋而不忠乎, 与朋友交而不信乎, and 传不习乎. The modern Chinese guide says: Zeng Zi said he examines himself daily on several points—whether, when handling affairs for others, he has been less than wholehearted; whether, with friends, he has been less than trustworthy; whether he has seriously reviewed and practised what his teacher transmitted. Legge’s public-domain English says: The philosopher Tsang said, "I daily examine myself on three points:—whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful;—whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere;—whether I may have not mastered and practised the instructions of my teacher." You can use each layer for what it is: source for wording, guide for contemporary sense, Legge for a fixed English door. You should not pretend one layer “updates” another into a sentence the page never printed.
What “background” the live text actually gives
You may want a birth year, a teacher list, or an extracanonical origin myth for 吾日三省吾身. The live Hsio R. 1.4 page does not give those. What it does give is speaker and scene: Zeng Zi (Tsang) reports his own daily habit. Prefer silence over false completeness. You should not invent dates, forge a stele story, or claim the saying began in a ceremony the Analects never narrates. If another Note catalogs more Zeng Zi lines, or places him in later transmission stories, that is a different intent—mention those siblings softly here without turning this page into their catalog. Your “background” stops where the live text stops.
How you can still run the three checks today
You can treat the triad as a conduct reading note, not as hustle copy. At the end of a day, ask whether you kept faith when you handled something for someone else; whether you stayed sincere with a friend; whether you practised what you claimed to have learned. You do not need a fourth slogan, a sales war metaphor, or a checklist that replaces the Chinese source. When the answer is no on any point, you return to the relation itself—not to a summary that flatters you. The saying stays useful because it names three concrete doors you can still walk through without buying a method.
Not the sayings catalog, not the bio, not zhongshu
You should keep this URL on Hsio R. 1.4 alone. A sayings catalog may list 吾日三省吾身 beside other lines; the Who Was Note may sketch the disciple; a separate concept Note unpacks 忠恕 elsewhere. None of those jobs belong here. Soft disambiguation is enough: this page owns the deep dive on the three examinations. You do not need a second money CTA to T'ai-po, Li Ren, or another blog. Prefer one intent per URL—and silence where a sibling already owns the cluster.
FAQ
What does 吾日三省吾身 mean in the Analects?
You hear Zeng Zi say he examines himself daily on three points: faithfulness when acting for others, sincerity with friends, and whether he has mastered and practised his teacher’s transmission. Hold the phrase as that triad on Hsio R. 1.4, not as a floating slogan detached from the chapter. Your next step is the live page with layers kept apart, not a paraphrase that invents a fourth point or a biography the text never prints.
What are the three points Zeng Zi names?
You meet them in order: 为人谋而不忠乎 (business for others / faithfulness), 与朋友交而不信乎 (friends / sincerity), and 传不习乎 (teacher’s instructions mastered and practised). Keep the closed set of three exactly as the source orders them. You should refuse any “updated” checklist that adds career metrics, branding goals, or a fourth moral slogan the live page never names.
Is “background” a historical biography of Zeng Zi?
You get speaker and self-report on the live page—not a birth year, a forged stele story, or an extracanonical origin myth for the saying. Prefer silence over inventing dates the Analects do not give. If you need the person sketch among disciples, open the Who Was Note or the index; this page stays with the saying’s three doors alone.
How do source Chinese, the modern guide, and Legge differ on this line?
You should keep them labeled as separate layers. Source holds the classical wording including 吾日三省吾身 and the three questions; the guide restates the checks in contemporary Chinese; Legge fixes an English triad of faithful, sincere, and mastered-and-practised. Never merge them into one invented sentence. Your honesty is citing which layer you used when you quote.
Is this the same as the Who Was Zeng Zi Note?
You use that Note for who he is among disciples; you use this Note for the deep dive on 吾日三省吾身 alone. Soft sibling pages may catalog other sayings or discuss transmission elsewhere—without taking this URL’s job or becoming a second money CTA. One intent per page keeps your reading map clean and stops cannibalizing near doors.
Can you add a fourth daily examination?
You should not. The live text names three points and stops; that closed set is the point of the saying. A fourth slogan—productivity hustle, branding, or “winning the day”—sits outside the passage. Run the three checks as conduct notes; then return to the chapter rather than padding the list until it flatters you.
Where should you read the full passage next?
You should open the live Hsio R. 1.4 door after this FAQ, with source Chinese, the modern guide, and Legge side by side on one page. Ask which of the three points still names your own day before you close the tab. Then stop on the published chapter instead of on any smoother summary that invents background.
Read Hsio R. 1.4 next
When you are ready for the saying where it lives, open The Analects · Hsio R. 1.4 and read the three points in order. Ask yourself whether loyalty for others, sincerity with friends, and practised teaching still name your own day—then return to the live text rather than to a paraphrase that invents background the page never gives.