This sentence comes from six books of Confucius' family language. The original text is as follows:
Living with goodwill, if you enter Lan Zhi's room and don't smell it for a long time, you will be integrated with it. Live with evil, like entering the land of abalone, if you don't smell it for a long time, you will melt with it. What Dan hides is red, and what he paints is black. Gentlemen should be careful where they are.
Translation:
Associating with people with good character is like entering a room full of herbs. The fragrance of herbs persists for a long time, because it blends with the fragrance.
Associating with people with bad conduct is like entering a shop selling smelly salted fish. Over time, you can't smell the salty fish, which is also because you are integrated with the smell. Where cinnabar is hidden, there is red, and where there is paint, there is black, so people with moral cultivation must be careful of their friends and environment.
Extended data:
This book was suspected to be a fake book in a long historical stage, and its value as ideological historical materials was not paid attention to. With the discovery of modern bamboo and silk documents, it is considered to be an old book in pre-Qin period. The authenticity, documentary value and academic value of Notes on Confucius' Family have been paid more and more attention and affirmed by people, and it is worthy of the title of "The First Book of Confucius Studies".
Biography of Confucius records the questions, answers, words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples in detail, which is of great theoretical value for studying the philosophy, politics, ethics and educational thoughts of Confucianism (mainly Confucius, the founder).
At the same time, because the book preserves many related records in ancient books, it has important literature value for the textual research of ancient relics and the collation of pre-Qin classics.