This sentence expresses the great influence of the environment on plants and people. Metaphor in a good environment, will naturally get healthy growth.
Excerpted from Xunzi's Encouraging Learning, the original excerpt is as follows:
There is a kind of bird in the south, called "Mongolian pigeon". It takes feathers as its nest, but it is woven with hair and tied with reeds. When the wind breaks, the egg broken child dies. The nest is endless, but so are the people connected with it. There is a kind of wood tree in the west called "Shegan". Its stem is four inches long, born in the mountains, near the abyss. You can't grow a wooden pole, but you can stand.
In the bitter fleabane bitter fleabane, can't bear to go straight. White sand is nirvana, and it is black. Lan Huaigen is a cheese, but he grows up, and the gentleman is not close, so he refuses to accept it. Its quality is not beautiful, but it is also gradual. Therefore, a gentleman must choose his hometown when he is born, and he must be a scholar when he travels. Therefore, we must also guard against evil and righteousness.
Translation:
In the south, there is a kind of bird called "Mongolian pigeon", which makes its nest with feathers, weaves its nest with hair and ties it to the ear of reed. When the wind blows, the reeds break, the bird's nest falls and the eggs break. It's not a bad nest, it's a reed spike. In the west, there is a tree called "Belamcanda". Its trunk is only four inches high, but it grows on a high mountain overlooking the abyss.
It is not how tall a tree can grow, but because it stands on the top of the mountain. Pennisetum grows in hemp fields and can stand upright without support. White sand is mixed in black soil, as black as black soil. The root of Sophora japonica is called Ai Xiang. Once immersed in smelly water, gentlemen no longer approach it and people no longer wear it.
The quality of wormwood itself is not bad, but the result of soaking its smelly water. Therefore, a gentleman must choose a good environment when he is alive, and he must be close to moral scholars when making friends, so as to prevent evil from approaching the right path.
Extended data
"Encouraging Learning" is the representative work of Xunzi and the first article in Xunzi's book.
The full text consists of two parts: the first part discusses the importance of learning; The second part discusses the steps, contents and methods of learning. And "learning can't" is the central idea that runs through the whole paper.
Several excerpts from the first part of "Encouraging Learning" have been selected into middle school Chinese textbooks since liberation, which is one of the traditional masterpieces that can stand the test of time.