人之初，性本善 in English ren2 zhi1 chu1 , xing4 ben3 shan4 Meaning

Meanings

  • man at birth is fundamentally good in nature
  • the first two lines of Three Character Classic 三字經|三字经[San1 zi4 Jing1]

Simplified Characters

人 之 初 ， 性 本 善

Traditional Characters

人 之 初 ， 性 本 善

Pinyin

ren2 zhi1 chu1 , xing4 ben3 shan4

Literal

Literal explanation, with pronunciation and meaning of each character.

人ren2man 之zhi1(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5]) 初chu1at first ， 性xing4nature 本ben3root 善shan4good (virtuous)