The original text and translation of the Three Friends of Benefit are as follows:

Original text Confucius said: "Three Friends of Benefit, Three Friends of Loss. Friends who are straightforward, friends who are forgiving, and friends who are well-informed are beneficial. Friends will make friends. , Friendly and gentle, friendship is sycophantic (nìng), which is a loss."

Translation Confucius said: "There are three types of beneficial friendships, and three types of harmful friendships. Friendship with honest people (forgiveness, forbearance). It is beneficial to make friends with people who are honest and well-informed. It is harmful to make friends with people who are accustomed to evil ways. It is harmful to make friends with people who are good at flattery. ."

Three Friends of Benefits

"Friends with Zhi" means making upright friends. This person has no twists and turns in his heart, is upright and selfless, will not harm others, and he cannot harm you. But you must be upright yourself in order to make upright friends, because "the same voice responds to the same spirit and the same spirit seeks the other." If you are not an upright person yourself, then upright people will not come to make friends with you.

"Friendly and forgiving" means making forgiving friends. Forgive everything, don't be demanding, don't always keep other people's faults in mind, and never forget them once they are revealed. Many annotations treat the word "forgiveness" as the word "faith", but the word "xin" has a very similar meaning to the previous word "zhi", because those who are straight must believe (so the meaning is repeated), so it should be treated as the word "forgiveness" here. speak.

"Friends with more knowledge" means making friends who are knowledgeable and informed. Because well-informed people are able to understand and will not dig into the corners of things when encountering them. Associating with such friends can also help you solve your confusion. It is beneficial to make these three types of friends.