老吾老及人之老

Respect the aged in your own family, and extend that respect to the aged of all families.

《孟子》

"Treat the aged of your own family in a manner befitting their venerable age and extend this treatment to the aged of other families" comes from Mencius, King Hui of Liang, Part I. The original text reads: "Treat the aged of your own family in a manner befitting their venerable age and extend this treatment to the aged of other families; treat your own young children in a manner befitting their tender age and extend this treatment to the young children of other families." It means that when supporting and respecting one's own elders, one should also extend this respect and care to the elders of others by putting oneself in their place. This idiom embodies the core Confucian ideas of "benevolence" and "putting oneself in another's place," emphasizing that starting from blood ties and family affection, one should extend love to all members of society and build harmonious and mutually supportive interpersonal relationships. Its deeper meaning is to advocate a great love that transcends one's own family, requiring people to treat others' relatives with the same attitude with which they treat their own. It is mostly used in discussions of moral cultivation, social ethics, respecting the elderly and caring for the young, and other such topics, and carries a solemn and commendatory emotional tone. In terms of cultural background, it is in the same vein as the traditional Chinese ideals of "Great Harmony under Heaven" and "The benevolent person loves others," and it still has positive significance for the construction of civic morality in modern society.

1. In community volunteer services, we should uphold the spirit of "extending the respect we show to our own elders to the elders of others," and take the initiative to care for elderly people living alone. (This sentence means extending the respect for one's own elders to the elders of others.) 2. Building a harmonious society requires everyone to "extend the respect we show to our own elders to the elders of others," so that respecting and caring for the elderly becomes a common practice. (This sentence means putting oneself in others' shoes and extending love from one's own elders to all elderly people.)