The classic famous sayings in Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian":

1. He who pastors the heart will pastor the world.

Translation: Mu Xin, painstakingly and carefully manage a kind of thought, thought or mood. Mu Xin, Mu Tianxia means that the emperor must have a harmonious relationship with his subjects and win the hearts and heartfelt support of his subjects. Only then can we govern the world well.

2. Doing an unjust act and killing an innocent person to conquer the world is not something a benevolent person would do.

Translation: Even if you do a bad thing and gain the world by killing an innocent person, a kind person will not do it.

3. Officials of saints are like craftsmen using materials. They take their strengths and make use of their weaknesses.

Translation: The Holy Lord chooses talents just like a carpenter chooses wood, using his strengths and discarding his shortcomings.

4. Those who hear of their faults will be relieved by the passage of time and will be blessed; those who hear of their praise will be ruined and misfortunes will come

Translation: Zhen (zhēn Zhen): Arrival. Reputation: praise, reputation. The general idea of ??these sentences is: if you often hear others talking about your faults, your faults will be reduced day by day and blessings will come; if you often hear others praise you, your reputation will be increasingly damaged and disasters will come.

5. Virtue is what people are strict with, but talent is what people love; those who love are easy to get close to, and those who are strict are easy to alienate. Therefore, those who observe are more likely to hide their talents and leave them behind in virtue.

Translation: A virtuous person is respected, a talented person is loved; it is easy to favor and trust the person you like, and it is easy to alienate the person you respect, so those who select talents are often judged by their talents. He was so blinded that he forgot to examine his character.

Those who are small and big are those who are cautious. The complete sentence is: The smallest is the greatest, the smallest is the greatest.

Source: "Zizhi Tongjian. Han Ji Jiu"

Translation: Only by working hard on many small things can one achieve great things; being cautious in small things will make his Virtue can shine through.

"Zizhi Tongjian" (often abbreviated as "Tongjian") is a multi-volume chronological history book edited by Sima Guang of the Northern Song Dynasty. It has 294 volumes and took 19 years to complete. It mainly uses time as the outline and events as the purpose. It starts from the 23rd year of King Weilie of Zhou Dynasty (403 BC) to the sixth year of Zhou Shizong's Xiande six years after the Five Dynasties (959 AD) when he conquered Huainan, covering 16 dynasties and 1362 years. history.

The content of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" is mainly about politics, military and ethnic relations, as well as economic, cultural and historical figures evaluation. The purpose is to analyze the policies of the ruling class that are related to the rise and fall of the country and the rise and fall of the nation. The description serves as a warning to future generations.