1. A low position brings shame, a high official position brings flattery.

The two sentences point out the reasons why some people are unwilling to ask for advice from others: they feel ashamed to ask for advice from people with a lower status than themselves, and they are afraid of being looked upon by others for learning from those with a higher status than themselves. It's flattery.

2. Sigh! It has been a long time since the teacher's teachings have been passed on, and it is difficult for others to be clear of confusion.

Hey, the custom of learning from a teacher has not spread for a long time. It is too difficult to make people have no doubts.

3. Ancient scholars must have teachers. A teacher is a person who preaches the truth, receives knowledge, and solves doubts.

Receive: Same as "teach", teach. A few sentences positively describe the responsibilities and functions of a "teacher": imparting principles, imparting knowledge, and answering questions.

4. People are not born with knowledge, how can they be free from confusion? If you are confused and do not follow the teacher, it is confusion, and you will never be able to understand it.

These sentences discuss the importance of learning from teachers: People are not born with knowledge, so who can be without problems? If you don't ask the teacher for advice when you have a difficult problem, your difficult problem will never be solved.

5. I am a teacher, do you know who was born to me one year or another? Therefore, there is neither high nor low, neither long nor short. Where the Tao exists, the teacher exists.

I am learning the way of the sages, so why does it matter if his birth date is before or after me? Therefore, regardless of status, regardless of age, whoever has the way of the sages is my teacher.

6. The ancient saints were also far away from others, and they still asked if they were teachers. Today's people are also far away from the saints, and they are ashamed to learn from their teachers.

Sages in ancient times even learned from their teachers, but most people today are ashamed to ask teachers for advice. This case reveals and criticizes the unhealthy trend of scholar-bureaucrats being ashamed to be teachers.

7. Those born before me, they heard the Tao before me, so I learned from them; those born after me, they heard the Tao before me, so I learned from them.

Those who were born before me knew the truth before me, so I would follow him and worship him as my teacher; those who were born after me, if they knew the truth before me, I would follow them. Also follow him and worship him as your teacher.