Mencius' Mother Moves Three Times 孟母三迁
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The story
Mencius became one of China's greatest thinkers. But as a kid, he copied everything. They lived by a graveyard, so he played funerals.
His mother moved them next to a market. Now he played merchant, haggling all day.
She moved a third time, next to a school. There he started bowing, reading, and studying. She finally said, this is the place.
Later, when he skipped his lessons, she cut the cloth she was weaving in half. Quitting halfway, she said, ruins everything. He never quit again.
A modern reading (ours)
Children absorb their surroundings. Mencius' mother chose the environment before she chose the lesson.
Source
Liu Xiang, Lienu Zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Women), 1st c. BCE (public domain). Retold in English; illustrations are AI-generated.