“You stand tall at thirty, you are not confused at forty, you know your destiny at fifty, and you are sixty sixty.” This is Confucius’s self-evaluation of the state of life he reached at the age of 30 in The Analects of Confucius: Politics.
The original text is Confucius said: "When I was fifteen, I was determined to learn; when I was thirty, I stood up; when I was forty, I was not confused; when I was fifty, I knew the destiny of heaven; when I was sixty, my ears were obedient; when I was seventy, I followed my heart's desires without going beyond the rules. "Although not everyone can be a Confucius sage, later generations often regard these self-comments of Confucius as the ideal state of life that should be achieved at different stages of life.
The "establishment" in Confucius' "thirty years of establishment" does not refer to starting a family and establishing a career, but a kind of conscious or conscious attitude based on a relatively clear understanding and understanding of society and oneself. There is a consciousness of relative awareness, a consciousness of independent self-personality. Human "li" consciousness is a universal spiritual phenomenon with characteristics such as consciousness, independence, stage, process, internal and external unity, etc.
Being forty without confusion does not mean that when a person reaches forty, he will no longer be confused about anything. The real meaning of being forty-year-old should be: when a person reaches the age of forty, he has experienced a lot and already has his own judgment (mainly referring to value judgment, that is, judging right and wrong, good and evil, good and bad, beauty and ugliness...).
Extended information
Confucius said: "When I was fifteen, I was determined to learn. 10. Follow your heart's desires and do not exceed the rules." This series of words is a very self-effacing expression of Confucius's process of learning, understanding and applying Zhou rites. Determined to study at the age of fifteen, and by the age of seventy, one can follow one's desires without exceeding the rules.
Confucius was a very humble man, and what he tried his best to promote throughout his life was Zhou Rites. This passage is very consistent with Confucius’s character and ideals.
Standing at thirty means establishing one’s own attitudes and principles in dealing with people and life on the basis of previous stages of study and enrichment of self-cultivation.
Similarly, not being confused at forty is the next stage of standing at thirty. Not being confused at forty means using your own principles to not be confused about your own principles after experiencing many people and things, rather than saying what is right. If you don’t have any doubts, you will become a god.
If you know destiny at fifty, it is not the so-called fatalism, but to understand the so-called destiny. Everything is created by yourself, so you should not blame God or others.
At sixty, one's ears are smooth, which means that at this time, one can understand right and wrong, and can distinguish between good and bad.
Doing what you want at seventy and not breaking the rules means that by the time you are seventy, you will have matured in all aspects of dealing with people and will basically not make mistakes when doing things. It does not mean that you will follow your heart and do whatever you want. Just do whatever you want.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Standing at Thirty
Baidu Encyclopedia - Not Confused at Forty