"If you want to cultivate your body, you must first rectify your mind; if you want to rectify your mind, you must first be sincere in your intentions" means that those who want to cultivate their moral character must first rectify their moral character. Thoughts; and to have pure thoughts, you must first make your thoughts sincere.

This sentence comes from Han Yu in the Tang Dynasty who quoted the famous saying in "The Book of Rites: University" in his representative work "Yuan Dao", "Sincerity is followed by a righteous heart, and righteousness is followed by body cultivation" and was later rewritten as: “If you want to cultivate your body, you must first rectify your mind; if you want to rectify your mind, you must first be sincere in your intentions.”

Original text: “In ancient times, if you want to show virtue to the world, you must first govern your country; if you want to govern, If you want to improve your country, you must first improve your family; if you want to improve your family, you must first cultivate your body; if you want to cultivate your body, you must first rectify your mind; if you want to rectify your mind, you must first be sincere."

Translation: In ancient times, a person who wanted to carry forward his glorious morality in the world must first govern his country; to govern his country well, he must first put his family in order; to put his family in order, he must You must first cultivate yourself; to cultivate yourself, you must first correct your own thoughts; to correct your own thoughts, you must first make yourself sincere.

Extended information:

"Book of Rites·University" was written by Zeng Shen, a disciple of Confucius. In the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu and Li Ao regarded "The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" as "classical books" as important as "Mencius" and "The Book of Changes"; in the Song Dynasty, "Er Cheng" and Zhu Xizu expressed this view and tried their best to praise it in the classics. The position in the book aims to promote Neo-Confucianism.

Zhu Xi collectively referred to "The Great Learning", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "The Analects" and "Mencius" as the "Four Books". In the first year of Shaoxi in the Southern Song Dynasty (1190), he published the "Collected Commentary on Chapters and Sentences of the Four Books" because of the "Analects of Confucius". "" records the words and deeds of Confucius, "The Great Learning" was written by Zengzi, "The Doctrine of the Mean" was written by Zisi, and "Mencius" records the words and deeds of Mencius, so it is also called the "Book of Four Sons".