Xunzi’s famous sayings and their explanations are as follows:
1. Therefore, wood will be straight if it is tied to a rope, and metal will be sharpened if it is sharpened. A gentleman who is knowledgeable and examines himself day by day will know what he knows and act wisely. It’s too late.
Explanation: Wood will become straight after being processed, and swords will become sharp after being sharpened. A gentleman will become wise if he learns profound knowledge and can often pay attention to himself. , and you will not make mistakes in your actions.
2. If you don’t climb high mountains, you don’t know how high the sky is; if you don’t visit deep streams, you don’t know how deep the earth is; if you don’t listen to the last words of the former kings, you don’t know how great knowledge is.
Explanation: If you don’t climb a mountain, you don’t know how high the sky is; if you don’t visit a deep stream, you don’t know how thick the earth is.
3. He who leads others with kindness is called teaching
Explanation: Guiding others with good intentions is called teaching.
4. Accumulate soil to form a mountain, multiply it and become high; accumulate water and form a sea, accumulate it and become deep. Therefore, it is the accumulation of saints.
Explanation: If there were no people, there would be no country. Without a little bit of soil, there would be no mountains. Similarly, if there was no daily accumulation, there would be no current experience.
5. The troubles of ordinary people are hidden in a song and hidden in Dali.
Explanation: Most people tend to be confused by side issues and fail to see the overall situation clearly. People are warned to look at problems comprehensively and not to stick to one-sided prejudices.
Xunzi
Xunzi (about 313 BC to 238 BC), whose surname was Kuang and whose courtesy name was Qing (it is said that people at that time respected each other and gave him the title Qing), was a minister of Zhao Dynasty in the late Warring States Period. A native of China, he was abbreviated as "Sun Qing" during the Han Dynasty to avoid being asked by Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty. He was a thinker, philosopher, educator, representative of the Confucian school, and the culmination of a hundred schools of thought in the pre-Qin era.
Xunzi summarized the theoretical results of the Contest of One Hundred Schools of Thought and his own academic thoughts, and created a complete system of simple materialist philosophy in the pre-Qin period. His thoughts exerted a subtle influence on the development of feudal society for more than two thousand years. .