In ancient times, if you want to show your virtue in front of the world, you must first govern the country; To govern the country well, we must first rectify the family; If you want to improve your family, you must first cultivate your own moral quality. To cultivate one's moral quality, one must correct one's mentality; If you want to correct your thoughts, you must make your thoughts honest. If you want to be honest, you must first make your knowledge extremely rich. The way to enrich knowledge is to exhaust the truth of things. Exhausting the truth of things, then knowledge will be extremely rich; With rich knowledge, you will be honest in thought and have a wrong heart; If you have a correct mind, your moral quality will reach a high level. When the moral character reaches a high level, the family will be well cured; Good family governance, good state governance, and peace in the world.
From the emperor to the common people, we should take the cultivation of our own moral character as the foundation. If the cultivation of moral character is fundamentally destroyed, it is impossible to "manage the family, govern the country and level the world." If the cart before the horse is put, what should be valued is ignored and what should be despised is valued, then the great goal of governing the country and leveling the world will never be achieved.