古之学者必有师。师者，所以传道受业解惑也。人非生而知之者，孰能无惑？惑而不从师，其为惑也，终不解矣。生乎吾前，其闻道也固先乎吾，吾从而师之；生乎吾后，其闻道也亦先乎吾，吾从而师之。吾师道也，夫庸知其年之先后生于吾乎？是故无贵无贱，无长无少，道之所存，师之所存也。 -- 韩愈《师说》【註1】

In ancient times, those who pursued learning always had a teacher. A teacher is one who transmits the Way, imparts knowledge, and resolves doubts. People are not born with innate understanding—who can be without doubts? If one has doubts yet does not learn from a teacher, those doubts will never be dispelled. If someone was born before me, then in hearing the Way he has naturally preceded me, and I follow him as my teacher. If someone was born after me, yet has heard the Way before me, I also follow him as my teacher. I take the Way itself as my teacher—how need I care whether he was born before or after me? Therefore, whether noble or humble, old or young, wherever the Way is found, there a teacher is found. (Translated on the Teachers Day 2016)

圣人无常师。孔子师郯子、苌弘、师襄、老聃。郯子之徒，其贤不及孔子。孔子曰：三人行，则必有我师。是故弟子不必不如师，师不必贤于弟子，闻道有先后，术业有专攻，如是而已。-- 韩愈《师说》

A sage has no fixed teacher. Confucius took Tánzi, Cháng Hóng, Shī Xiāng, and Lǎo Dān (Laozi) as his teachers. Yet those like Tánzi were not as virtuous or wise as Confucius himself. Confucius said, “When three walk together, there is always something I can learn from one of them.” Therefore, a disciple is not necessarily inferior to his teacher, nor is a teacher necessarily superior to his disciple. In learning the Way, some attain it earlier, others later; in the arts and professions, each has his own area of expertise； nothing more than that.

业精于勤，荒于嬉；行成于思，毁于随。 --韩愈《进学解》【註2】

Excellence in study comes from diligence and is lost to idleness; moral integrity grows from reflection and is ruined by indulgence.

古之王者莫不以教化为大务。立大学以教于国，设庠序以化于邑。渐民以仁，摩民以义，节民以礼，故其刑罚甚轻而禁不犯者，教化行而习俗美也。-- 班固《汉书》五，卷十七 【註3】

In ancient times, none of the rulers failed to regard moral instruction as their primary task of governance. They set up imperial academies to teach on the state level, and set up local schools and academies to transform the people in the towns. They gradually guided the people with benevolence, shaped them with righteousness, and regulated them with ritual propriety. Consequently few people violate the law even though the punishments were light, for where moral instruction was practiced, customs became refined and gracious. --《Books of Han》 Vol.5, Book 17

建国君民，教学为先。 --《礼记》【註4】

In founding a state and leading the people, education must come first.

学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆。 --孔子《论语》【註5】

Learning without thinking leads to confusion; thinking without learning ends in peril. --Confucius 《Analects》

玉不琢，不成器；人不学，不知道。-- 孔子《礼记》

Jade requires carving to become an ornament; a person requires learning to understand the Way.

不积跬步，无以至千里；不积小流，无以成江海。--荀子《劝学》 【註6】

Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles; without gathering small streams, one cannot form a river or sea.

君子曰：学不可以已。--荀子《儒效》

The gentleman says: learning must never cease.

学而时习之，不亦说乎？ --孔子《论语》

Is it not a pleasure to learn and practice what one has learned from time to time?

教也者，长善而救其失者也。--孔子《礼记》

Teaching is to promote what is good in people and correct what is wrong.

道而弗牵，强而弗抑，开而弗达。--孔子《礼记》

Guide without forcing, encourage w ithout suppressing, and enlighten without dictating。

大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。--曾子《大学》【註7】

The purpose of higher learning lies in manifesting bright virtue, loving the people, and attaining the highest goodness.

【註1】《师说》是唐代文学家韩愈创作的一篇议论文。文章阐说从师求学的道理，讽刺耻于相师的世态，教育了青年，起到转变风气的作用。文中列举正反面的事例层层对比，反复论证，论述了从师表学习的必要性和原则，批判了当时社会上“耻学于师”的陋习，表现出作者不顾世俗独抒己见的非凡勇气和斗争精神。

【註2】 《进学解》是唐代文学家韩愈的一篇代表性散文，作于他青年时期。全篇以“劝学”为旨，采用“问答”形式，通过虚拟人物的对话，阐述了学习的重要性、勤学的态度以及做学问与修身立业的关系。韩愈在文中批判了当时社会上轻视学问、追逐功名的风气，强调学习必须持之以恒、勤奋专一。文章结构严谨，语言雄辩而富有气势，是古代劝学散文的典范，也被视为中国古代教育思想的重要文献之一。

【註3】《漢書》見本書《古者聖王之制》【註】 和 【作者简介】

【註4】 《礼记》编纂者戴圣是西汉时期的一位礼学博士，他将秦汉以前的礼仪论著收集整理后，编纂成《礼记》，也称为《小戴礼记》；成书于汉建初七年（80年），原为四十六篇后增至四十九篇。 书中包含孔子弟子及后代学者对礼制的论述，内容庞杂，涉及先秦礼制和儒家思想，是儒家“十三经”之一。《礼记》所论之“礼”，不仅指具体的仪节制度，更是一种社会秩序与道德规范的体现，体现了儒家“以礼治国、以德化人”的核心理念 《礼记》语言典雅，思想深远，对中国古代的政治制度、教育理念、伦理道德以及文化传统产生了深远影响。

【註5】 见本书《主者，国之心也》注②

【註6】见本书《善不可谓小而无益》【荀子作者簡介】

【註7】曾子（前505年-前435年），姒姓，曾氏，名参，字子舆，被后世尊称为“宗圣”，鲁国南武城（今山东平邑，一说山东嘉祥）人。 黄帝后代，亦为夏禹王后代，曾点之子， 孔子的弟子，春秋末年思想家、儒家大家，儒家学派的代表人物之一， 七十二贤之一，儒学五大圣人之一， 孔庙四配之一。 曾子少时常随父学诗书，有“伏案苦读”之说。鲁哀公五年（前490年），奉父命至楚，从学孔子。后随孔子周游楚、卫后入鲁。颜回病故后，曾子为孔子学说的主要继承人。鲁悼公十一年（前456年），齐聘以相，楚迎以令尹，晋迎以上卿，曾子皆不应命。后与子夏、段干木等设教于西河一带。鲁悼公三十二年（前435年），曾子病逝，终年71岁，葬于嘉祥县南武山西南的玄武山下。 曾子参与编制了《论语》，创作《大学》《孝经》《曾子十篇》等作品，他提出的修、齐、治、平的政治观， 构成了一套完整的封建伦理道德的政治哲学体系， 还有其内省、慎独的修养观，以孝为本的孝道观，都对后世产生了深远的影响。 曾子为人孝悌、诚信，留下了“啮指痛心”（“二十四孝”之一）“曾子杀猪”等家喻户晓的故事。

【作者韩愈简介】韩愈（768年—824年12月25日），"唐宋八大家"之首，与柳宗元并称"韩柳"，有"文章巨公"和"百代文宗"之名。后人将其与柳宗元、欧阳修和苏轼合称"千古文章四大家"。在旧《广东通志》中被称为"广东古八贤"之一。 他提出的"文道合一"、"气盛言宜"、"务去陈言"、"文从字顺"等散文的写作理论，对后人很有指导意义。著有《韩昌黎集》等。

【作者班固簡介】見本書《古者聖王之制》【作者简介】

Note 1: 《On Teachers》 (Shi Shuo) is an argumentative essay written by the Tang dynasty scholar and writer Han Yu. The work expounds the principle of learning from teachers, satirizes the social custom of being ashamed to seek instruction from others, and serves to educate young people and help reform prevailing attitudes toward learning. Through a series of contrasting examples and repeated arguments, Han Yu demonstrates the necessity and proper attitude of studying under a teacher, while criticizing the unhealthy trend of scorning one’s instructors; that was common in his time. The essay reveals the author’s extraordinary courage and fighting spirit in defying social conventions and expressing his independent views.

Note 2: 《 Advancing in Learning》 (Jìn Xué Jiě) is a representative prose work by Han Yu, a distinguished writer of the Tang dynasty, written in his early years. The essay centers on the theme of encouraging learning, adopting a question-and-answer form in which the author uses an imagined dialogue to expound the importance of study, the attitude of diligence, and the relationship between scholarship, self-cultivation, and the pursuit of one’s career. In the work, Han Yu criticizes the prevailing social trend of neglecting true learning while chasing official rank and fame, emphasizing that learning must be pursued with perseverance and wholehearted devotion. The essay is noted for its rigorous structure, forceful reasoning, and eloquent style, making it a model of classical essays on the value of learning and one of the most important writings in the history of Chinese educational thought.

Note 3: See 《Institutions of Ancient Sage-Emperors》 Note and Introduction to the Author.

Note 4: Dai Sheng, the compiler of the 《Book of Rites》, was a ritual scholar (Doctor of Rites) during the Western Han dynasty. After collecting and organizing earlier writings on ritual from before the Qin and Han periods, he compiled them into what became known as the 《Book of Rites》, also called the 《Lesser Dai Book of Rites》 (Xiao Dai Li Ji). The work was completed in the seventh year of the Jianchu era (80 CE), originally consisting of forty-six chapters, later expanded to forty-nine. The book contains discussions on ritual systems by Confucius’ disciples and later scholars, covering a broad range of topics related to pre-Qin ritual traditions and Confucian philosophy. It is one of the 《Thirteen Confucian Classics》. In the 《Book of Rites》, the concept of “li” (ritual propriety) refers not only to specific ceremonial practices, but also to the embodiment of social order and moral norms, reflecting the Confucian ideal of governing the state through ritual and transforming people through virtue. Written in elegant language and profound thought, the 《Book of Rites》 exerted a far-reaching influence on China’s ancient political institutions, educational ideals, moral ethics, and cultural traditions.

Note 5: See 《Ruler is the Heart of the State》 Note ② in this book.

Note 6: See 《Good deeds cannot be dismissed as too small to be of benefit》 Introduction to Author Xunzi.

Note 7: Zengzi (505 BCE – 435 BCE), personal name Shen, courtesy name Ziyu, was a native of Nanwu City in the State of Lu (modern-day Pingyi or Jiaxiang, Shandong Province). A descendant of the Yellow Emperor and King Yu of the Xia dynasty, and the son of Zeng Dian, he was a disciple of Confucius, a thinker of the late Spring and Autumn period, and one of the most prominent figures in the Confucian school. Revered as the “Model Sage” (Zong Sheng) by later generations, he was counted among Confucius’s seventy-two worthy disciples, one of the Five Great Sages of Confucianism, and one of the Four Associates worshiped in the Confucian Temple.

In his youth, Zengzi diligently studied poetry and classical texts under his father, and was known for his devotion to learning. In 490 BCE, he was sent by his father to the State of Chu to study under Confucius, later accompanying his master on travels through Chu and Wei, and eventually returning to Lu. After the death of Yan Hui, Zengzi became the principal inheritor of Confucius’s teachings.

In 456 BCE, the rulers of Qi, Chu, and Jin, each sought to appoint him to high office, as Prime Minister, Chief Minister, or High Councillor, but Zengzi declined all such invitations, choosing instead to devote himself to teaching alongside Zixia and Duan Ganmu in the Xihe region. He passed away in 435 BCE, at the age of seventy-one, and was buried beneath Mount Xuanwu, southwest of Nanwu Mountain in modern-day Jiaxiang County, Province .

Zengzi helped compile 《The Analects》 and is credited with authoring works such as 《The Great Learning》 (Daxue), 《The Classic of Filial Piety》 (Xiaojing), and 《The Ten Chapters of Zengzi》. His political philosophy，summarized in the progression of “self-cultivation, family regulation, state governance, and bringing peace to the world” (xiū修 qí齐, zhì治, píng平)，formed a systematic framework of Confucian ethical and political thought. His doctrines of introspective self-discipline (shen du) and filial devotion (xiao) had a profound influence on later generations.Renowned for his filial piety, sincerity, and integrity, Zengzi left behind many beloved moral tales, including “Biting the Finger to Signal Pain” and “Zengzi Slaughters the Pig”, both widely known among the Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety.

Introduction to the author Han Yu:

Han Yu (768 – December 25, 824), ranked first among the “Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song,” and together with Liu Zongyuan was known as “Han and Liu.” He was honored with titles such as “Grand Master of Prose” and “Model of Literature for a Hundred Generations.” Later generations grouped him with Liu Zongyuan, Ouyang Xiu, and Su Shi as the “Four Great Prose Masters of All Time.” In the old 《Gazetteer of Guangdong》, he was listed as one of the “Eight Worthies of Ancient Guangdong.”

He advanced influential theories on prose writing, including “the unity of writing and the Way,” “vigorous spirit expressed through apt words,” “eliminating stale expressions,” and “clarity and smoothness in language.” These ideas served as significant guidance for later writers. His works include 《Collected Works of Han Changli》.

Introduction to the author Ban Gu: See 《Institutions of Ancient Sage-Emperors》 Introduction to the Author.