This sentence comes from the "Augmented Xianwen" revised in the Ming Dynasty, and the original text is:
Daoyuan welcomes Xianke, and Confucianism is hidden in the study. The palace grows bamboos and the pond raises arowana.
Make friends with yourself as if I were better than anything else. But it's better to meet each other after three to five days.
Vernacular translation: Taoist temple welcomes immortals, and the school hides Confucian scholars as prime ministers. In the courtyard, Pterocarps are planted, and in the pond, arowana is raised. To make friends, you need to find someone with better knowledge and skills than yourself. It is the same to associate with people who are not at the same level. As long as we get along for a few days, we will find that he is not as good as his first impression.
Extended data:
"Making friends must be better than yourself, as if I were better than anything else" means making friends with people who are better than yourself, that is, "making friends must be better than yourself". This view comes from the Analects of Confucius: "He who has no friends is not as good as himself."
Usually explained as: don't make friends with people who can't compare with yourself. In fact, this understanding is problematic. On the surface, it makes sense to make friends with powerful people, but this is not Confucius' original intention. According to this analogy, Confucius was the most learned scholar at that time. Didn't he even have a friend?
Therefore, the key is to understand the meaning of "not as good as yourself". In fact, "not as good as yourself" is different from your own pursuit. The word "like" here means "like" rather than "comparable". For example, if you haven't seen me for a day, it's like Sanqiu, which means "like". In this way, "a person without friends is not as good as himself" means not to make friends with people with different pursuits or ambitions.