Xun Zi (c. 313 BC – 238 BC), courtesy name Qing, was a Zhao dynasty scholar at the end of the Warring States period. Famous thinker, writer, politician, and was revered as "Xun Qing".
He served three times as a sacrificial liquor at the Qi Guo JiXia Xue Palace. Xun Zi was the master of pre-Qin Confucianism, and together with Confucius and Mencius, he was known as the three most important figures in pre-Qin Confucianism.
Xunzi's thought inherits the traditional Confucian thought, and it is also a collection of hundreds of families. XunZi advocates the "theory of sexual evil", emphasizes the importance of acquired efforts, emphasizes the role of practice, and is a positive philosophy of life.
01
"Heaven is not the evil cold of man, quit winter; the earth is not far away from the evil of man, quit Guang; a gentleman is not a villain of Hungary, and quits."
Translation: God will not put an end to winter because man still hates the cold; nor will the earth abandon its vast expanse because men hate it too far; nor will a gentleman cease his actions and abandon his great personal ambitions because of the unreasonable clamour and needless interference of some despicable man.
02
"Good farmers do not cultivate for water and drought, good farmers do not fold and do not market, and gentlemen do not slack off for poverty."
Translation: A good peasant does not go to cultivate the land because he encounters natural disasters such as water and drought; a good businessman does not stop engaging in business because of a temporary loss; a person with lofty ambitions does not relax his strict requirements on himself, relax his fighting spirit, and abandon his ideal pursuit because he is poor.
03
"Work hard and be at ease, for it; for less and more righteousness, for it."
Translation: Even if some things are very hard and tiring to do, as long as they conform to their own ideals, as long as they are from the heart, they must persist in doing them; even if there are some things that have no benefits, as long as they have important significance and value, they must do everything possible to do it well.
04
"Zhi yi xiu is proud and rich, morally heavy is light on the prince; introspection and external things are light."
Translation: If you are determined and ambitious, you will be proud of wealth and nobility, disdain fame and fortune, follow the rules of being a human being, and put morality first, and you will despise those princes and nobles, and you will despise the power very lightly.
Pay attention to ideological cultivation, and constantly examine your own heart, you can dominate the things of the outside world and not be swayed by the things of the outside world.
05
"The thick one, the accumulation of etiquette; the great, the wide ceremony; the high, the ceremonial longye; the bright, the end of the ceremony."
Translation: A person can possess a generous character because he accumulates day by day and persists in acting in accordance with the principle of etiquette; a person can possess the virtue of open-mindedness and generosity, in the fact that he generally promotes the principle of etiquette and does everything according to the requirements of etiquette; a person can possess noble virtue because he truly carries forward the principle of etiquette; and a person can possess the virtue of discernment, because he has effectively melted the principle of etiquette in his heart.
06
"A gentleman can be precious, but he cannot make people noble; he can be trustworthy, and he cannot make people believe in himself; he can be usable, and he cannot make people use himself."
Translation: People of high moral character cherish themselves and respect themselves, but do not require others to respect themselves and promote themselves very high; they can be honest and faithful, but they do not require others to trust themselves one hundred percent, and they have to blindly confess to others; they can become useful materials, but they do not require others to appoint themselves, so as to speculate and drill camps.
07
"A gentleman who is ashamed not to cultivate is not ashamed to see evil; shame does not believe, shame does not see faith; shame cannot, shame does not see use." It is not to be tempted by reputation, not to be afraid of slander, to walk in the right way, to be upright, not to be inclined to things, and to be a sincere gentleman. (The Non-Twelve Sons)
Translation: Gentlemen are ashamed of their own poor cultivation, not ashamed of being slandered by others; ashamed of their own dishonesty, not ashamed of being distrusted by others; ashamed of their lack of morality and lack of talent, not ashamed of not being reused by others. People of high moral character are not seduced by vanity, intimidated by slander, not shaken by external objects, but follow the right path and are strict with themselves, which is called a veritable gentleman.
08
"To be small and to be big is to be small, but to be overcome is to have little strength and a heavy task, and to give up the essence is not suitable." The body is not humble and false, it is the body that is good and ascends, and the one who refers to the top of it is more and more numerous. ”
Translation: Ability can not be achieved, but must do earth-shattering big things, just like the strength of the small must be to pick up a heavy burden, in addition to breaking the bones, what can be the result? We must also seek truth from facts and treat ourselves with truth from facts and treat them correctly. Originally, his own moral character was bad, but he blindly boasted that he was a wise man, as if he were a hunchbacked man who was hard to charge him with a tall man, and when others saw him, they could only point at his head and laugh at him.
09
"Ask for it and then get it, do it and then achieve it, accumulate it and then high, and do it and then saint it." (Confucianism)
Translation: People must continue to seek in order to gain something, continuous practice to achieve something, continuous accumulation to improve, can reach the level of perfection to become a saint.
10
"Although the tao is not good, it is not done; although it is small, it is not impossible."
Translation: Although the distance is close, it is impossible to reach without walking; although things are small, they cannot be completed without doing. Noble morality must be pursued, and the moral realm can only be sublimated through continuous cultivation.
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