-- "Jointly Pursuing the Development Dream of China and Australia and Achieving Regional Prosperity and Stability Shoulder to Shoulder."

- Cited in a speech to the Australian Federal Parliament", etc

■Interpretation

In his speech to the Australian Federal Parliament, Comrade Xi Jinping quoted this sentence from Ouyang Xiu's "On Friends" and expounded the principle and position of China's international exchanges: advocating to be a "gentleman's friend" based on morality and helping each other in the same boat, so that friendship can last forever and be passed on from generation to generation. The same is true of the friendship between countries, and the same is true of the friendship between people. Just because of the pursuit of interests to come together, it is inevitable that there will be many benefits and contention, and profits will be separated. Those who engage in small circles and gangs often collude with improper interests, and they seem to be very close, but in fact they have different intentions and intrigues. This is what the sages denounced as "friends of villains". The friendship of gentlemen is with one heart and one mind, and only by uniting together with the pursuit of common ideals and striving for the great cause can we work together and forge an unbreakable strong team. It's a great friendship and a real friendship. For the Communists, faith is our common language, the deepest force that makes people consistent and unswerving.

■Original text

The ministers have heard the saying of friends since ancient times, but fortunately the king distinguishes his gentleman and villain. …… Therefore, the minister said that the villain has no friends, and he is temporarily a friend, and he is also a hypocrisy. The gentleman is not, he who guards is moral, he who does is faithful, and he who pities is honorable. With its self-cultivation, it will benefit from the same way, and the country will be of the same heart and help each other, and it will always be the same, and this gentleman's friend is also. Therefore, he is a monarch, but when he retreats from the villain's pseudo-friends, and uses the true friends of the gentleman, the world will be governed.

——(Northern Song Dynasty) Ouyang Xiu "On Friends"

■Definition

During the reign of Song Renzong, Ouyang Xiu and Fan Zhongyan were degraded by Lü as a friend because of their opposition to Prime Minister Lü Yijian's proposal to abolish Empress Guo. In the third year of Qingli (1043), Song Renzong reused Fan Zhongyan and others to carry out reforms, and political opponents attacked again on the charge of "friends", so Ouyang Xiu wrote an article "On Friends" to present to Emperor Renzong. The article compares and argues layer by layer to convince people.

In "On Friends", Ouyang Xiu proposed: villains do not have friends, only gentlemen have. Because the villain is greedy for the goods of Lero, when they have the same interests, they temporarily collude with friends, and this kind of friends is hypocritical; When they have exhausted their interests, they will in turn kill each other, even brothers and relatives. Gentlemen, on the other hand, uphold morality, fulfill faithfulness, and cherish honor. In this way, we will cultivate morality, and we will be like-minded and mutually beneficial; If you do things for the country in this way, you can work together in harmony and consistently, which is the gentleman's friend. Therefore, as long as the monarch can repel the villain's fake friends and use the gentleman's true friends, the world can be stable.