The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their sta… - Confucius
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The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy. From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.
Confucius (traditionally 28 September 551 B.C. – 479 B.C.) was a Chinese social philosopher, whose teachings deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. "Confucius" is a latinization of the Chinese 孔夫子, Kong Fu Zi or K'ung-fu-tzu, literally "Master Kong", but he is usually referred to in China with a simpler version of this honorific as 孔子, Kongzi, or Kǒng Zǐ.
Biography information from
Wikiquote·
Portrait adapted from
Wikimedia Commons, Anonymous Chinese painter of the Western Han period (Public domain / CC0)
Also Known As
Native Name:
孔夫子
Alternative Names:
Confucio
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Konfuzius
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Cheu-kong
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Chung-ni
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Cong-tse
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K'ung Chung-ni
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K'ung Fu-tse
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K'ung-fu-tzu
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K'ung-tzu
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Kong Fu Zi
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Kong Fuzi
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Kong Qiu
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Kong Zhongni
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Kongfuzi
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Kongqiu
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Kongzi
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Kung Chung-ni
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Kung Fu Tzu
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Kung Fu-tse
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Kungfutse
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Zhongni
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Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their States were rightly governed. Their States being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
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Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge.
Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
Learning without thinking is wasted effort; thinking without learning is dangerous
Let the superior man never fail reverentially to order his own conduct, and let him be respectful to others and observant of propriety:—then all within the four seas, all men are brothers. What has the superior man to do with being distressed because he has no brothers?
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Worthy admonitions cannot fail to inspire us, but what matters is changing ourselves. Reverent advice cannot fail to encourage us, but what matters is acting on it. Encouraged without acting, inspired without changing – there’s nothing to be done for such people.
