Everyone has a duty toward his country.

Everyone has a duty toward his country.

This phrase is known to all in China. There are many similar expressions in such classics as The Book of Changes, The Great Learning and Zhong Yong (The Doctrine of the Mean). Mencius left the most citations about this idea.

The phrase finds its closest origination in Ri Zhi Lu (Records of Daily Knowledge) by Gu Yanwu (1613-1682), a thinker and historian in the late Ming (1368-1644) and the early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. He meant that if the whole of society suffers a decline in morals, even an ordinary man must rise up to rescue. In 1915, Liang Qichao (1873-1929), agonizing over the Republican government's signing of an unequal treaty with Japan, wrote an essay to call upon the nation to wipe out the humiliation through reform. He sighed in the essay, "Gu Yanwu was right to say that every man has a duty toward his country."

Xi Jinping has quoted Gu Yanwu on more than one occasion. At a gathering in September 2014 to mark the 69th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World War II, he said that the Chinese people had formed a great spirit of resistance during the war, as everyone showed their duty toward their beloved homeland.

天下兴亡，匹夫有责

“天下兴亡，匹夫有责”流传极广。形成这一观念的思想渊源，可以追溯于《周易》《大学》《中庸》等典籍，以孟子之学最为集中。而“天下兴亡，匹夫有责”的说法则可溯源于顾炎武《日知录》，本意是指若整个社会出现道德沉沦，那么即使是普通民众也应当奋起救赎。1915年，梁启超有感于民国政府与日本签订不平等条约的屈辱，写下《痛定罪言》一文，认为欲雪国耻的关键在于“我辈之自新”：“斯乃真顾亭林所谓‘天下兴亡，匹夫有责’也。”

习近平多次引用“天下兴亡，匹夫有责”这句话。2014年9月，他在纪念中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争胜利69周年座谈会上指出，在中国人民抗日战争的壮阔进程中，形成了伟大的抗战精神，中国人民向世界展示了“天下兴亡，匹夫有责”的爱国情怀。