Meaning: Being with people of high moral character is like entering a house with the fragrance of orchids. After a long time, your body will be affected by the fragrance, and you will no longer be able to smell the fragrance of orchids. Being with people of low quality is like entering a salted fish market, which will turn stinky over time.
Source: From the work "Confucius' Family Sayings·Six Books" which records the thoughts, words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples during the Spring and Autumn Period.
Excerpt from the original text: The red is hidden in the elixir, and the black is hidden in the lacquer. Therefore, a gentleman must be careful where he is.
Translation: Where there is cinnabar, there is red, and where there is paint, there is black. Therefore, a person with moral cultivation must be cautious about his friends and environment.
Extended information
"Confucius' Family Language" records in detail the questions, answers, words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples, and is very useful for studying the philosophy of the Confucian school (mainly the founder Confucius) Thoughts, political thoughts, ethical thoughts and educational thoughts have great theoretical value.
At the same time, because the book preserves many relevant records in ancient books, it has great documentary value for researching ancient relics and collating pre-Qin classics. Secondly, most of the contents in the book have strong narrative sentiment, that is to say, most of them are anecdotes about Confucius. Therefore, this book has high literary value.
First of all, this book is an important reference for studying the life and thoughts of Confucius, and it is also an important basis for us to understand the true face of Confucius in history. In addition, many stories in the book and many philosophical words of Confucius have profound reference significance for us.
Song Confucianism attached great importance to the study of mind and nature, and attached great importance to "The Analects", "Mencius", "Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean". However, compared with these "four books", both in scale and content, "Confucius Family Sayings" is much higher.
Determined by the book characteristics of "Jiayu", this book is more valuable for the comprehensive study and accurate grasp of early Confucianism. In this sense, this book can be regarded as the "first book of Confucianism" status.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Confucius Family Language