This chapter is Confucius' encouragement to the three great pleasures of life. These three sentences are very reasonable and need our careful understanding. Let's look at the first sentence, "it's not bad to learn from time to time." Literally speaking, this sentence means that besides studying hard, you should also review frequently. This is very happy! But three words are very important, time and study. Attention should be paid to learning in a broad sense, and all the principles of dealing with people and the skills of daily life should be included. Xia Zi said: A moral person can change his color. Parents can do their best, and gentlemen can lead them. Although he said he didn't, I'm sure he did (this chapter is also learning, which will be explained in detail later). This is a fact. Practice in a broad sense should include review, practice and practice. Therefore, the broad interpretation of this sentence should be: we should try our best to know and understand everything in the world and its truth, and often apply what we have learned widely to our lives, so that we can always realize that learning and learning are very happy things!
The second sentence, "It's a pleasure to have friends from afar", literally means: It's also a great pleasure to see friends from afar. This sentence can be extended, but my brother thinks it can be translated literally. Excessive extension is afraid of being too far from the point and has no original intention. It's just that we must take into account the background of Confucius. At that time, technology was not so developed as it is now, and the traffic between towns and the communication between people were quite inconvenient. There are no cars, trains, planes, telephones, computers, internet, and even few letters (maybe limited literacy). So relatives and friends who live far away want to meet. In addition to walking in the traditional way, or walking with ox carts and carriages (the former may be far more than the latter), they not only waste time, but also have to put down all their work (many of which are productive) to achieve it, and they have to walk back afterwards. So unless there is a strong motive, general communication should be very unusual. Therefore, Confucius said: It's so pleasant to see friends from afar leave all their work and come thousands of miles to see me!
Finally, why is the phrase "people who don't know but don't care, are not gentlemen" also a description of the happy realm? It takes some time to explain this, and you have to use snacks to understand it when reading, so you might as well wash your face and refresh yourself before you continue reading. Did you wash your face? Then let's move on. Literally, this sentence should be interpreted as: if I can make sure that others don't understand my knowledge or don't even offend me, I will be close to the realm of a gentleman. At first glance, this is another chapter of the same article: Confucius said: if you don't suffer from people and don't know your friends, you don't know people. A little similar, but much deeper. There is another story: Confucius said: Words without deeds, loyalty to the ancient, stealing my old Peng. Also echoed this sentence in spirit. Now let's go back to this sentence. The point of this sentence is not the literal meaning, but what to do after people don't know. Why not? In real life, it is common for a person to buy a valuable new car or jewelry and look for friends to show it off everywhere. Originally unknown, my brother really didn't care. It's just that he used propaganda. Once it is publicized, everyone knows it, so naturally he won't be angry. It would be easier if we could get close to the realm of a gentleman. I think the main reason why people don't know is that learning is to enrich themselves, not to show others. Besides, there are so many things to learn that you can get endless pleasure from learning, so even if someone offends himself unconsciously, the unhappiness it brings is nothing compared with the pleasure gained from learning. Instead of being angry, it is better to spend time and energy on learning in order to get greater happiness. This is the same as Taber's article: Confucius said: if you learn less, you are afraid of losing. They all say the same thing. And if you can really achieve this level, you must have a deep understanding of learning and practice, and you must get a lot of happiness from it, so it is really not far from the gentleman's way. Therefore, this last sentence: people don't know and don't care, isn't it a gentleman? It is not only a great pleasure in life, but also the purpose of learning.