Sixty and ears are smooth.

Original text:

Confucius said: "When I was fifteen, I was determined to learn. At ten, follow your heart's desires and do not exceed the rules."

Translation:

Confucius said: "When I was fifteen, I was determined to be a great scholar; At the age of fifty, he understands the basic laws of heaven and physics; at the age of sixty, he understands everything he has heard; at the age of seventy, he can do as he pleases without going beyond the rules."

Source: "The Analects of Confucius·Wei Zheng". 》

Extended information

Confucius recounted his learning and cultivation process. This process is a process in which one’s ideological realm gradually improves with age. As far as the ideological realm is concerned, the whole process is divided into three stages: the age of fifteen to forty is the stage of learning and understanding; the age of fifty and sixty is the stage of peace of mind, that is, the stage of not being affected by the environment; the stage of seventy Age is the stage when subjective consciousness and rules of life merge into one. In this stage, moral cultivation reaches its highest level.

Confucius’s moral cultivation process has reasonable factors: first, he saw that human moral cultivation is not something that happens overnight. There must be a step-by-step process. Second, the highest state of morality is the integration of thoughts, words and deeds, and consciously abide by moral norms rather than doing it reluctantly. These two points apply to everyone.

Reference material: Baidu Encyclopedia - The Analects of Confucius·Weizheng