This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
In summer don’t sleep on stone, in autumn don’t sleep on bare boards. In spring don’t expose your navel, in winter don’t cover your head.
Move more by day, dream less by night.
Washing your feet before bed beats taking tonics. Open the window at night, and you’ll sleep soundly all night.
Throw off the covers to keep cool, and it would be a wonder not to fall ill.
Early to bed and early to rise keeps the spirit happy and the mind fresh; indulging in the bedroom and oversleeping adds illness and takes away years.
Grinding your teeth at night means worms crawling in your belly.
Eating a whole pig a day is not as good as snoring in bed.
Eating a whole sheep every three days is not as good as washing your feet before going to bed.
Choose the wrong pillow, and the more you sleep the more tired you get.
First put the mind to sleep, then the body; sleep well and you’ll sleep yourself into a great beauty.
Head toward the wind, warm and cosy; feet toward the wind, send for the doctor.
Never sleep in an alleyway; the most harmful is the draught through a hall.
Sleep without a lamp lit, and you won’t be dizzy when you rise early.
If you want to sleep and wake refreshed, never lie with feet to the west and head to the east.
◆A thousand lessons are not as good as one look, and a thousand looks not as good as one practice.
◆Live long on a slope, and you won’t mind that it is steep.
◆For a horse look at its teeth; for a person look at their words and deeds.
◆Without passing through winter’s cold, you don’t know spring’s warmth.
◆Without carrying a load you don’t know its weight; without walking a long road you don’t know its distance.
◆Without sleeping under the quilt, you don’t know how wide it is.
◆If you never go into the water, you’ll never learn to swim; if you never hoist a sail, you’ll never learn to sail a boat.
◆Without running a household you don’t know the price of firewood and rice; without having children you don’t know your parents’ kindness.
◆If you don’t touch the bottom of the pot your hands won’t get black; if you don’t pick up the oil bottle your hands won’t get greasy.
◆When the water falls the stones appear; as time passes a person’s heart is seen.
◆The blacksmith must hold the tongs himself; the farmer must go into the fields himself.
◆For cutting firewood ask the woodcutter; for sailing a boat ask the boatman.
◆Better to overdo it than to miss out.
◆Fooled once, the second time your mind is clear.
◆Each flood leaves a layer of silt; each experience adds a bit of wisdom.
◆What you hear may be false; what you see is real.
◆An old horse knows the way; an old person knows the ways of the world.
◆If the old don’t tell of the past, the young will lose their bearings.
◆Old beef is worth chewing; old people’s words are worth listening to.
◆Old ginger is spicier; old people have more experience.
◆Hearing a hundred times is not as good as seeing once; seeing a hundred times is not as good as doing once.
◆Each time you suffer a loss, you learn a lesson.
◆Only when you run a household do you know the cost of salt and rice; only when you leave home do you know how hard the road is.
◆All talk and no practice is a fake; all practice and no talk is the real thing; both talk and practice is the complete master.
◆Much filing makes a sharp saw; much doing increases knowledge.
◆An old tree has many roots; an old person has much knowledge.
◆To cut firewood go up the mountain; to catch birds climb the tree.
◆Cut firewood at the thin end; ask the way of an old man.
◆A clay pot won’t leak unless it is struck; wood won’t be pierced unless it is chiselled.
◆Grass cannot hide from the eagle’s eye; water cannot hide from the fish’s eye.
◆The herb farmer entering the mountains sees medicinal herbs; the hunter entering the mountains sees birds and beasts.
◆A snake is cold all over; a wolf reeks all over.
◆A fragrant flower is not necessarily pretty; one who talks well is not necessarily capable.
◆Each setback brings a gain in insight.
◆The more widely you experience, the more you know.
◆To know what goes on in the mountains, ask the old farmers in the countryside.
◆To know your parents’ kindness, hold your own children and grandchildren in your arms.
◆If you want to eat chillies, plant chilli seedlings; if you want to eat carp, go to the Yangtze.
◆An old tree is half hollow; an old person knows about everything.
◆When one person speaks, he is entirely in the right; when two people speak, you can tell who is better.
◆One upright person wards off three evils; an upright person wards off a hundred evils.
◆Strength or weakness for a moment lies in force; victory or defeat for all ages lies in reason.
◆Grasp one principle thoroughly, and a hundred principles become clear.
◆People fear being in the wrong, as dogs fear having their tails between their legs.
◆People fear reason as horses fear the whip.
◆When a person turns unruly there is reason to restrain him; when a horse turns unruly there are reins.
◆Many people produce sound reasoning; plenty of grain produces good rice.
◆Don’t look at whether someone is close to you, look at whether the reasoning is sound.
◆Without clouds in the sky it won’t rain; without reason in the world nothing gets done.
◆All the bows in the world are curved; all the reasons in the world are straight.
◆There are not two suns in the sky, nor two kinds of reason for people.
◆The more a well is dredged, the clearer the water; the more a matter is laid out, the clearer the reason.
◆In the wrong, the heart panics; in the right, courage is strong.
◆An ox without strength drags the harrow crosswise; a person without reason talks crossly.
◆Recognize reason, not persons, and no matter will go unresolved.
◆Recognize reason, not persons; support what is right, not your relatives. However high the water, it cannot flood over the boat; however big the hand, it cannot cover the sky.
◆When water is not level it flows; when reason is not fair it must be spoken.
◆When the water recedes the stones remain; a good person cannot be slandered into a bad one.
◆Using power, you win people’s mouths; using reason, you win people’s hearts.
◆Give way to others an inch, and you gain a foot of reason.
◆With reason on your side you speak the truth; without reason you talk nonsense.
◆Those in the right think before they speak; those in the wrong rush to speak.
◆With reason on your side you don’t fear pressure from power; an upright person doesn’t fear a crooked shadow.
◆Being right doesn’t depend on speaking loudly; say what you have to say to someone’s face.
◆When you are right, don’t give it up; when you are wrong, don’t argue.
◆With reason you win; without reason you lose.
◆Apply reason to the matter at hand; use good steel for the blade.
◆With reason you can travel the whole world; without reason you can’t move an inch.
◆With an axe you can fell a tree; with reason your argument won’t fall.
◆Ambition does not depend on age; being right does not depend on being eloquent.
◆When you eat, eat rice; when you speak, speak reason.
◆Those who eat others’ food have soft mouths; those who criticize others are short of reason.
◆When you eat, eat something tasty; when you speak, speak something reasonable.
◆However well you walk, you cannot outrun your shadow; however well you talk, you cannot outtalk reason.
◆The tongue is made of flesh; facts are made of iron.
◆When a lamp is not bright, someone must trim it; when a matter is not clear, someone must explain it.
◆A lamp is not bright unless trimmed; reason is not clear unless debated.
◆Good people contend over reason; bad people contend in words.
◆Good tea is not afraid of careful tasting; a good deed is not afraid of careful discussion.
◆Good wine is not afraid of brewing; a good person is not afraid of being talked about.
◆There is no end to the roads you can walk, nor to the reasons you can know.
◆On the road you fear a rainstorm; in speech you fear losing the argument.
◆The mouth of a jar can be sealed, but people’s mouths cannot.
◆When reason is not short, the mouth is not soft.
◆Food without salt has no taste; words without reason have no force.
◆Feet cannot outrun the rain; a strong mouth cannot overcome reason.
◆In doing things follow the principles of heaven; in speaking accord with people’s hearts.
◆A steady boat fears no strong wind; with reason you can go anywhere in the world.
◆To cook rice you must put in rice; to speak you must speak reason.
◆Different trades are separated as if by mountains, but they are not separated in reason.
◆A drum does not sound unless struck; reason is not clear unless debated.
◆The road is crooked, but reason is straight.
◆When a road is uneven, everyone tramples it flat; when a matter is unjust, everyone takes a hand.
◆There are a thousand roads, but only one reason.
◆Milling grain must produce rice; speaking must produce reason.
◆Plenty of paddy threshes out rice; plenty of people talk out reason.
◆When splitting wood, look at the grain; when speaking, rely on reason.
◆People have ambition as bamboo has joints.
◆With perseverance everything succeeds; without perseverance everything collapses.
◆A person’s worth is not in size, nor a horse’s in height. People strive upward, as water flows downward.
◆People look toward great things, as birds fly toward the heights.
◆People strive for honour, fire strives to blaze, and the Buddha strives for a stick of incense.
◆Old in years but not old in heart; poor in body but not poor in ambition.
◆People need a strong heart, as trees need tough bark.
◆People rely on ambition, as tigers rely on their might.
◆People fear having no ambition, as trees fear having no bark.
◆People prosper from the heart, as trees grow from the roots.
◆In every one of the three hundred and sixty trades there are top achievers.
◆However high the mountain, there is something to climb toward; however far the road, there is something to strive for.
◆High mountains have long rivers; great ambition brings vigorous spirit.
◆The petty person nurses grudges; the gentleman nurses ambition.
◆Fear not a long road, only short ambition.
◆Fear not that nothing goes well, only losing heart.
◆Fear not high mountains, only weak legs.
◆Fear not failing to learn, only a lack of sincerity.
◆Fear not shallow learning, only weak ambition.
◆Without taking some risk, it is hard to train courage.
◆Without grinding and tempering, you won’t become a true hero.
◆A wooden ruler, though short, can measure a thousand zhang.
◆Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it.
◆Heaven doesn’t rain for a whole month; a person isn’t poor for a whole life.
◆Heaven does not give birth to useless people, nor does earth grow nameless grass.
◆Without ambition, the mountain weighs on your head; with ambition, people move mountains.
◆Meeting the strong, don’t fear them; meeting the weak, don’t bully them.
◆When the moon wanes its light does not change; when an arrow breaks its steel does not change.
◆Deep water is hard to see to the bottom of; a dead tiger does not lose its majesty.
◆Water flows downward; people strive to go upstream.
◆As long as you strive to improve yourself, don’t fear being looked down upon.
◆There is only the sky that cannot be climbed; there is no mountain that cannot be crossed.
◆Fear only not being diligent, not lacking skill; fear only lacking perseverance, not lacking success.
◆Better to keep the gate for a gentleman than to run the household for a petty person.
◆What is precious in a bird is its wings; what is precious in a person is ambition.
◆Birds fly toward the light; people go toward the heights.
◆Born without courage, great strength is of no use.
◆Better a cold body than a cold heart; better to be poor in means than poor in ambition.
◆Better that your bones suffer than that your face be shamed.
◆Better to be an ant’s busy legs than to imitate a sparrow’s chattering beak.
◆Better to be the soil beneath a poor man’s feet than a delicacy on a rich man’s table.
◆Better to have your bones broken than to bow your head and suffer humiliation.
◆Better to lead the horse for a hero than to be a grandfather to a lazybones.
◆Better to give a poor man a whole dou of grain than give a rich man a mouthful.
◆Better to eat porridge with a smile than a meal with a frown.
◆Better to carry a gentleman’s shoes than to share wealth with a petty person.
◆Better to strike a golden bell once than a broken drum a thousand times.
◆Better that money suffers a loss than that people do.
◆Better to die than to go against reason; better to be poor than to lose ambition.
◆Ambition does not depend on age; without ambition one lives a hundred years in vain.
◆There is a sky that cannot be climbed, but no pass that cannot be crossed.
◆Where there is a mountain there must be a road; where there is water there must be a ferry.
◆Even after a hundred days of continuous rain, there will always be a sunny morning.
◆Steamed buns already eaten are not fragrant; sugarcane already chewed is not sweet.
◆A hero relies on strong ambition; a good horse relies on bold courage.
◆A hero doesn’t swallow a silent loss; a good bird doesn’t fly into a thorny thicket.
◆A hero sees a task through to the end; a good horse, once on the road, runs to the finish.
◆A good son doesn’t fight over wealth and property; a good daughter doesn’t fight over her trousseau.
◆A good drum sounds as soon as it is struck; a good lamp brightens as soon as it is trimmed.
◆High ambition, high character; low ambition, low character.
◆When walking, don’t fear climbing high mountains; when poling a boat, don’t fear crossing dangerous rapids.
◆A man without ambition is blunt iron without steel; a woman without ambition is tangled weeds without seedlings.
◆A scholar starving to death won’t sell his books; a warrior at the end of his road won’t sell his sword.
◆Grain must grow by itself; people must strengthen themselves.
◆There is no tree that cannot be sawn down, no bell that cannot be made to ring.
◆When poor, don’t lose your ambition; when rich, don’t go wild.
◆The poor don’t seek rich in-laws; in the rain don’t climb a high mound.
◆For a gentleman’s revenge, ten years is not too late.
◆A gentleman takes revenge in three years; a petty person takes revenge on the spot.
◆A tiger doesn’t fear a high mountain; a fish doesn’t fear deep water.
◆A thin tiger still has a brave heart; a poor person’s ambition is not short.
◆An old tree’s roots are deep; an old person’s bones are tough.
◆A tree fears rotten roots; a person fears having no ambition.
◆If grass had no heart it would not sprout; if a person has no heart he will not prosper.
◆The bold ride dragons and tigers; the timid ride cats and rabbits.
◆The bold can travel the whole world; the timid can’t move an inch.
◆A steelyard weight, though small, can balance a thousand jin.
◆As long as the green hills remain, there’s no fear of running out of firewood.
◆However high the waves, they are beneath the boat; however high the mountain, it is beneath your feet.
◆A vegetable without a heart will die; a person without heart will perish.
◆Vegetables can be eaten, chaff can be eaten, but insults cannot be swallowed; food can be yielded, clothes can be yielded, but reason cannot be yielded.
◆A fierce tiger does not stay in a weak position; a brave eagle does not perch on a drooping branch.
◆A rope can saw through wood; dripping water wears through stone.
◆The sorrowful suffer from long nights; the ambitious regret that the days are short.
◆Willing to die for the many, not to perish for one person.
◆Cast your net against the current; sail your boat into the wind.
◆When one person builds a road, ten thousand walk in safety.
◆When one person does evil, ten thousand suffer.
◆One who doesn’t say two-faced things doesn’t seek to please both sides.
◆When one mountain produces a tiger, the pigs of a hundred families die.
◆Like the character 一, level at both ends: a fair scale cheats no one.
◆One good deed cannot cover a hundred bad ones; a hundred good deeds cannot cover one bad one.
◆One egg won’t fill your belly, but a bad name you carry till old age.
◆People fear dissipation, as iron fears the furnace.
◆Heart is exchanged for heart; eight liang for half a jin (one good turn deserves another).
◆Those who love to argue over trifles to your face are sure to gossip behind your back.
◆People should be solid at heart; fire should be hollow at heart.
◆People are best when honest; ginger is hottest when old.
◆Entering the mountains, don’t fear the man-eating tiger; fear only the double-edged knife of human relations.
◆Knife wounds are easy to cure; wounds from words are hard to heal.
◆Grass on the highway is trampled by travellers; a crooked mind is talked about by others.
◆A thousand pieces of gold cannot buy a heart; ten thousand pieces of gold cannot buy the Dao.
◆Steal a needle when young, steal gold when grown.
◆The petty person remembers grudges; the gentleman remembers kindness.
◆Fear not the glaring vajra guardian; fear only the squinting bodhisattva.
◆Fear not tigers and wolves sitting before you; fear only the two-faced knife in front of people.
◆Fear not that others don’t respect you; fear only that you yourself are not upright.
◆Fear not ghosts frightening people; fear only people frightening people.
◆Don’t ride two horses at once; don’t drink tea from two sides.
◆Wealth that isn’t yours shouldn’t fall into your pocket.
◆If you don’t drink wine your face won’t turn red; if you don’t steal your heart won’t be startled.
◆If you don’t seek petty gains you won’t be cheated; greed for petty gains brings great losses.
◆Heaven relies on the sun and moon; people rely on conscience.
◆A bad horse harms the herd; a rotten mandarin spoils the basket.
◆Persuading people to good always brings benefit; stirring up trouble brings endless harm.
◆Hit someone and you’ll worry for two days; curse someone and you’ll be ashamed for three.
◆Punching the air wastes strength; empty talk wears out the mind.
◆Strike water and it makes waves; strike stone and it makes fire; provoke people and it makes disaster.
◆You should only help people up, never drag them down.
◆You should only urge people to reconcile, never to separate.
◆You can save people from hardship, but not from gambling.
◆There is only building bridges and paving roads, never breaking bridges and cutting roads.
◆A reputation can reach a thousand li, but one’s might cannot.
◆Birds cherish their feathers, tigers their skins; in dealing with the world, people cherish their face.
◆Better to admit a mistake than to tell a lie.
◆Better to chant the Buddha’s name with a meat-eating mouth than to curse people with a vegetarian mouth.
◆Better to have no money than to have no shame.
◆Better to be upright and lacking than crooked and having plenty.
◆Better to fight openly with spears than to wound people with arrows from hiding.
◆Better to have no money to spend for a day than to behave badly for a day.
◆Better to let the heart suffer than to let the face burn with shame.
◆Better to stretch out a hand to help others than open your mouth to trap them.
◆Better to save a hundred sheep than one wolf.
◆If oaths were effective, the prisons would hold no guilty people.
◆A leather whip wounds the flesh; harsh words wound the heart.
◆Say what you have to say face to face; lay matters out in the open.
◆Don’t use up all your power; don’t enjoy all your good fortune.
◆If you sincerely wish to burn incense, it doesn’t matter whether early or late.
◆In front of a true person, don’t tell lies.
◆If your conduct is not upright, your tongue is three inches shorter.
◆An honest person does nothing underhand; a true person tells no lies.
◆Contentment brings peace; greed easily invites disaster.
◆The contented are called gentlemen; the greedy are petty people.
◆Contentment brings lasting happiness and freedom from disgrace all one’s life.
◆Knowing one’s faults is not hard, correcting them is; speaking of good is not hard, doing good is.
◆When a dog bites a person there is medicine to cure it; when a person bites a person there is no cure.
◆A fox will always show its tail; a poisonous snake will always flick its tongue.
◆Those who covet petty gains will hardly accomplish great things.
◆Scheming and plotting will end up harming yourself.
◆Harmony brings wealth; contrariness brings disaster.
◆Learning good takes three years; learning bad takes three days.
◆A thousand days are not enough to learn good; one day is more than enough to learn bad.
◆Let the tiger go back to the mountain, and there will surely be trouble later.
◆Meanness doesn’t earn money; honesty doesn’t lose capital.
◆A family fortune built by meanness will not be enjoyed for long.
◆A thief cannot hide from his neighbours; stolen food cannot hide from the tongue and teeth.
◆A thief starts by stealing spring onions; embezzlement starts with skimming a little.
◆Stolen money lasts two or three days; money earned by blood and sweat lasts forever.
◆Stealing food doesn’t make you fat; being a thief doesn’t make you rich.
◆With straight feet you don’t fear crooked shoes; with an upright heart you don’t fear being struck by thunder.
◆Standing firm with feet planted like a cross, you don’t fear rolling clubs.
◆Cats and mice don’t sleep together; tigers and deer don’t walk together.
◆If you sit steady at the bow, you don’t fear the wind tossing you.
◆Money is like dung and dirt; face is worth a thousand gold.
◆The honest poor are often happy; the dishonest rich have many worries.
◆Lies must not be told; crops must not be neglected.
◆When sparrows land in the field they want to eat the grain; when a fox enters the house it wants to steal the chickens.
◆You may bully the mountain but not the water; you may deceive people but not your own heart.
◆One monk carries his own water to drink; two monks carry it together on a pole; three monks have no water to drink.
◆Set on chasing two hares at once, you end up empty-handed.
◆Once bitten by a snake, you fear a straw rope for three years.
◆Ask him anything and he knows nothing; even the immortals can do nothing for him.
◆Have your fortune told three times a year, and even without illness you’ll fall ill.
◆A full bottle of water makes no sound; a half-full bottle sloshes about.
◆A person whose heart is never satisfied is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant; insatiable greed would eat the moon.
◆People in happiness don’t know their happiness, as a boat on the water doesn’t feel the current.
◆People see the profit but not the harm, as fish see the bait but not the hook.
◆People love the rich; dogs bite the poor.
◆The more people play, the lazier they get; the more the mouth eats, the greedier it gets.
◆When I do wrong it doesn’t count; when others do wrong they get a spanking.
◆One’s own meat isn’t tasty; other people’s vegetables are delicious.
◆Self-praise is rotten straw.
◆A cat that meows a lot catches few mice.
◆Nitpicking about others while calling oneself flowers and fine rice.
◆Good medicine can hardly cure an illness brought on by one’s own sins; good words can hardly persuade a muddle-head.
◆A clever person turns at a single nudge; a muddle-headed person can’t be turned back even with a stick.
◆Wearing clothes only three feet long, his speech has no sense of proportion.
◆Going hungry when without money, showing off when with money.
◆Paper flowers bear no fruit; a wax core cannot go near the fire.
◆However big a chicken is, it can’t fly over the wall; stove ashes cannot build a wall.
◆Watching others carry a load looks effortless; carrying it yourself, you rest at every step.
◆Warn the monk by looking at the Buddha; warn the son by looking at the father.
◆When speaking, watch the trend; when acting, watch which way the wind blows.
◆If the father doesn’t know how to plough, the son won’t know the seed grain.
◆When gravely ill, people seek any doctor, and burn incense at every temple they pass.
◆Words from family go in one ear and out the other; words from outsiders are like golden scripture.
◆A family without a backbone stands its broom upside down.
◆The more incense you burn, the more ghosts you attract.
◆A mother’s love for her son is as long as the road; a son’s love for his mother is as long as a thread. A mother missing her son is like the Yangtze’s waters; a son missing his mother is as long as a carrying pole.
◆One who can be great or small is a dragon; one who can only be great and never small is a worm.
◆Eyes bigger than the belly: eating out of pride, you can’t finish it.
◆Eyes that can’t recognize treasure take lingzhi mushrooms for weeds.
