The original text is: the ancient desire is obviously superior to the world, governing the country first. If you want to govern your country, you should unite your family first. If you want to keep your family together, you should trim your body first. If you want to cultivate yourself, you should be upright first. If you want to be right, be sincere first. If you want to be sincere, let him know first. Knowledge exists in things.
Things are known, people know and are sincere, honest and upright, upright and self-cultivation, self-cultivation and self-cultivation, self-cultivation and self-cultivation, self-cultivation and governing the country, governing the country and leveling the world.
Translation of vernacular Chinese:
Knowledge can only be acquired through the understanding and research of everything; Only after acquiring knowledge can the mind be sincere; Sincere heart, square heart; With a correct attitude, you can cultivate your body and mind; Only after physical and mental cultivation can we manage our family and family well.
Only when the family and clan are well managed can the country be well managed; Only by governing the country well can the world be peaceful. From the monarch of a country to the common people, everyone should be self-cultivation-oriented.
Writing process
It is said that it was written by seventy-two disciples of Confucius and their students, edited by Dai Sheng, a ritual musician in the Western Han Dynasty. The poems, books, rites, music, the Book of Changes, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Six Classics written by Confucius disciples are the carriers of the highest philosophy in China's classical culture, but they are not easy to read.
So do more reading to help you understand. The "ceremony" in the Six Classics, later called "ceremony", mainly records the "ceremony" of the crown, marriage, funeral and sacrifice in the Zhou Dynasty, which is limited to the style and hardly involves the "ceremony" behind the ceremony. If you don't understand etiquette, the ceremony will become a worthless ceremony.
Therefore, in the process of practicing etiquette, the post-1970 s wrote a large number of papers explaining the classic meaning, collectively called "Ji", which belongs to the vassal of etiquette. After Qin Shihuang burned books to bury Confucianism, there were still many "notes" written in pre-Qin prose in the Western Han Dynasty, including "13 1 article" in the History of Art Granted by Han Dynasty and the History of Literature.