“Without quiet, inward resolve, there is no brightly evident understanding; without sustained, concentrated work, there is no conspicuous achievement.” The line comes from Xunzi’s “Encouraging Learning”. Here, mingming suggests something deep and not outwardly displayed, while zhaozhao means clear and manifest; hunhun refers to concentrated diligence, not confusion.
The sentence continues Xunzi’s discussion of accumulation and focused effort. Clear understanding and visible achievement both have a formative stage that others do not see. It does not praise hardship for its own sake. Its restrained modern value is to warn against judging ability only by polished outcomes, or treating progress that has not yet become visible as if nothing were happening.
https://ctext.org/xunzi/encouraging-learning
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