Meaning: If you know the truth in the morning, you will not feel regretful if you die at night. It describes the urgent pursuit of truth or a certain belief.
Source: "The Analects of Confucius: Li Ren" by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period
Original text: Confucius said: "Everyone's faults are due to his own party. After observing his faults, he knows that he is benevolent. When he hears the Tao, It’s time to die.”
Translation: Confucius said: “People’s mistakes are always of the same nature as the mistakes made by people in his group. Therefore, when examining the mistakes made by a person, You can know whether he is benevolent or not. If you understand the Tao in the morning, you will be willing to die that night.” "Appreciation"
Confucius devoted his whole life to restoring Zhou rites, and his core idea was benevolence and righteousness and the etiquette to maintain benevolence and righteousness. The Zhou Dynasty was a feudal dynasty. To put it bluntly, the princes were related to the emperor, and the princes were also related to the subordinate princes. We were all relatives, so what relatives naturally talked about was benevolence, righteousness, and etiquette. These moral and ceremonial things were suitable for the political ecology of the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty.
You must know that at that time, "courtesy was not given to common people, and punishment was not given to officials." Therefore, benevolence and righteousness are a means of restraint to maintain relations between princes and for the emperor to maintain his status. The purpose of the Tao mentioned by Confucius is to maintain this stable relationship. Confucius traveled around the world, lobbying and selling his thoughts and doctrines, but no one paid attention to the rulers. He must have been very anxious to see that no one cared about his ideas.
At that time, Confucius was in a period of historical change when the feudal system collapsed and a new order was established. What the kings of various vassal states needed was a governance method that could cope with the new order. At this time, the debates among various schools of thought were essentially making suggestions for rulers to govern the new order. Most ideas (including Confucius's ideas) were on the road to restoration, and their ideas were naturally not accepted by the world.
That’s why he said, “If you hear the Tao in the morning, you will die in the evening.” In addition, Confucius rarely talked about death, but here he said, "If you hear the Tao in the morning, you can die in the evening." From common sense, Confucius should know that his "Tao" cannot be realized, and it is just an extravagant hope. It is easy to say Death only shows that it is too difficult to achieve, almost impossible to achieve.
As we usually say: If you can do anything, even if you die, it will be worth it. Why do you dare to say this, because you know that such and such content cannot be realized. Hearing the Tao in the morning is enough to die in the evening. In fact, what Confucius really meant was: If you hear your way of benevolence and righteousness in the morning and it is accepted and implemented by the king of a certain vassal state, then even if you die at night, there will be nothing to regret.
This is a kind of satisfaction without regrets after the ideal is realized. It can be translated like this: If in the morning, you know that your ultimate goal has been achieved, even if you die because of it at night, it will not matter. What a pity.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Hear the Tao in the morning and die in the evening