不 在 其 位，不 谋 其 政

bù zài qí wèi , bù móu qí zhèngdictionary entry

don't meddle in affairs that are not part of your position (Confucius)

Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-1a1b805e9bd1b145. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

不在其位，不謀其政 不在其位，不谋其政 [bu4 zai4 qi2 wei4 , bu4 mou2 qi2 zheng4] /don't meddle in affairs that are not part of your position (Confucius)/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

Other forms in these source records: 不在其位，不謀其政

不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
在
zài
to exist / to be alive / (of sb or sth) to be (located) at / (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress)
其
qí
his / her / its / their / that / such / it (refers to sth preceding it)
位
wèi
position / location / place / seat / classifier for people (honorific) / classifier for binary bits (e.g. 十六位 16-bit or 2 bytes) / (physics) potential
不
bù
no / not so / (bound form) not / un-
谋
móu
to plan / to seek / scheme
其
qí
his / her / its / their / that / such / it (refers to sth preceding it)
政
zhèng
political / politics / government

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.