It means that water can carry a boat and also overturn it.

Source: "Xunzi Wang Zhi" biography: "The monarch, the boat also; Shu Ren, water also. Water can carry a boat or overturn it. "

Excerpt from the original:

If the horse is scary, the gentleman is uneasy; The terrible politics in Shu Ren made the gentleman uneasy. If a horse is scary, it will be quiet. If Shu Ren is terrible, it will be beneficial.

Choose the virtuous and appoint the competent, show reverence, promote filial piety, collect orphans and widows, and make up for poverty. If so, Shu Ren will be safe. Shu Ren came to power, and then the gentleman came to power. Chuan said: "The monarch, the boat is also; Shu Ren, water also. Water can carry a boat or overturn it. " This is also called.

Therefore, if you want peace, you must be honest and love the people; If you want to get honor, you must be respectful to scholars; If you want to make a name for yourself, Shang Xian will certainly be able to do it. This is a big festival for the nobles.

Translation:

The horse disturbed the car, so the people in the car could not ride safely; People interfere with politics, and those in power cannot be content with their official positions. Let the horse be quiet, it is better to scare the car; If ordinary people disturb politics, it is better to give them benefits.

Select talents. Recommend honest people, advocate filial piety and love for relatives and friends, adopt widows, and help the poor. If so, ordinary people will feel at ease politically, and then gentlemen will be content with their political status. Legend: "Jun is the ship; Ordinary people are water. Water can carry a boat or overturn it. " That's what I'm saying.

The king wants peace, and it is best to be diligent and love the people; If you want to get wealth, you'd better treat the scholars with grand etiquette; In order to gain fame, it is best to respect and appoint talented people, which is a major event related to the safety and survival of rulers.

Extended data:

"Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it" is a well-known motto of China people, and it is also a good strategy for governing the country that ancient emperors have always followed. However, today, when "freedom and democracy" has become a universal value, this old proverb is inevitably endowed with the significance of the times.

Many people think that from this sentence, we can see the sprout of China's ancient "democracy" consciousness, which shows that the people are the real holders of rights, thus providing an ideological basis for majority rule. But this sentence does come from Xunzi, which can be found in Xunzi Wang Zhi and Mourning for the Public.

Since then, it has been repeatedly quoted and restated in Liu Xiang's Shuo Yuan Xin Xu, Wang Su's Explanation of Five Instruments of Confucius' Family Words, Wei Zhi's Theory of Daoism and Jason Wu's Zhenguan Dignitary, which shows its heavy weight. In Xunzi Wang Zhi, he said: "Jun is also a boat; Shu Ren, water also; Water can carry a boat or overturn it. "

In The Question of Mourning for the Public, this sentence is an answer to Confucius' question of mourning for the Public. Xunzi, as a junior who admired Confucius' thought, used this sentence of Confucius in his idea of governing the country intact, so later generations used this sentence to persuade those in power to love the people and be benevolent, and became a good word for governing the country, serving politics and consolidating feudal rule.

To understand the real Confucianism, we need to start with Confucius' remarks, and this sentence "Water can carry a boat and also overturn it" can go through thousands of years, which has provided positive influence to rulers of past dynasties, and at the same time, it has given us new enlightenment in the new China where contemporary people are masters of their own affairs.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Xunzi Wang Zhi