知其不可而为

Mandarin

simpl.		知其不可而为
trad.		知其不可而為

Etymology

• c. 479 BCE – 221 BCE, anon, Analects of Confucius (论语／宪问第十四)

  子路宿於石门。晨门曰：「奚自？」子路曰：「自孔氏。」曰：「是知其不可而为之者与？」

  Zilu spent the night at Shimen. (In the morning) the gatekeeper asked him, "Where do you come from?" Zilu said, "I come from (the house of) Mr. Kong." (The gate keeper) responded, "Is he (not) the one who knows the futility (of doing something) yet does it anyway."

Idiom

知其不可而为 (simplified, Pinyin zhī qí bùkě ér wéi, traditional 知其不可而為)

1. to (stubbornly) do something even though you know it is impossible; to understand the difficulty of a feat but to attempt it anyway because it is the right thing to do (e.g. strive to eliminate world hunger)

Synonyms

• 知其不可而为之
• 知其不可为而为之

References

• "知其不可而为" (in Mandarin), Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典). URL accessed on 2007-12-28.
• "知其不可而为之---是谁说的！这句话有什么典故，描写什么的！" (in Mandarin), Baidu Online Encylopedia. URL accessed on 2007-12-28.

External links

• Google hits: .cn
• Google hits: .tw