"Without accumulation, there is no mileage. If you don't accumulate small streams, you can't become rivers and seas. " It means: a journey of a thousand miles comes out one step at a time, and you can't walk a thousand miles without a small step of accumulation. The extended meaning is to do things in a down-to-earth manner and persevere step by step to achieve the goal.

Excerpt from Xun Zi's Persuasion

Accumulated soil becomes mountains, and the wind and rain are prosperous; The water drops merged into the ocean and the dragon was born; Accumulate goodness into virtue, the gods are complacent, and the sacred heart is prepared. Therefore, you can't take Wan Li Road without accumulating steps; If you don't accumulate small streams, you won't be a river. Leap, not ten steps; This is a great contribution to the success of Ma Xu. Perseverance, rotten wood can't be carved; Perseverance, the stone can be carved. Earthworms do not have the advantages of minions, and their bones and muscles are strong. They eat the earth and drink the yellow land with their hearts. The crab kneels six times and pinches twice. It's not that the snake hole has no sustenance, it's also impetuous.

Translation:

Earth and stone pile up into mountains, and the wind and rain start from here; Water flows into the abyss, and dragons are born from it; Accumulate virtue and do good deeds, cultivate noble moral character, and the natural mind will be clear and there will be a spiritual realm of saints. Therefore, without the accumulation of half a step, there is no way to reach thousands of miles away; Without the accumulation of tiny flowing water, there is no way to merge into the rivers and seas. The horse jumped less than ten paces; A bad horse can pull a cart for ten days, and its achievement comes from constantly walking.

If it stops after a while, the rotten wood will continue to be carved. Stick to carving and the stone will be carved successfully. Earthworms have no sharp claws and teeth and strong bones and muscles, but they can eat the soil and drink the water in it, because they are single-minded. A crab has six legs and two crab claws. Without the caves of snakes and eels, it has nowhere to live, because it is impetuous.

Extended data:

"Encouraging Learning" is the first article in Xunzi. Also known as persuasion. Persuasion is to encourage learning. This paper systematically discusses the theory and method of learning. The first part (the first paragraph) discusses the importance of learning; The second half (the second and third paragraphs) discusses the steps, contents and methods of learning.

The central idea of the full text of "Encouraging Learning" is as follows: 1. Learning is not enough; Second, the heart, and third, people who learn will learn. Xunzi believes that learning first needs to cultivate moral temperament, maintain the quality of single-mindedness, specialize in learning a technology to achieve a crash (learning a crash), and then maintain perseverance and perseverance is the correct learning direction; Only by starting from the beginning to the end and never giving up halfway can we achieve a complete and pure spiritual realm.

Xunzi was one of the greatest educators in ancient times. His best students were Han Feizi, a jurist, Li Si, the prime minister of Qin Dynasty, and Zhang Cang, the prime minister of Han Dynasty. It can be seen that Xunzi's learning is practical.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-persuasion