Confucius was a renowned educator and thinker in ancient China.
One day, a student asked Confucius, "Master, you speak of benevolence and righteousness as the highest virtues. Everyone loving one another and treating others with kindness is indeed a noble ideal. I deeply desire to cultivate such virtue, yet I also cherish my life dearly. If these two—life and virtue—ever come into conflict, what should I do?"
When Confucius heard this, he replied solemnly, "When life and virtue come into conflict, any true person of ambition and benevolence should make their choice without hesitation: never harm righteousness out of fear of death, but for the sake of virtue, spare not even one's own life. In a word, this is called sacrificing one's life to achieve benevolence."
The student respectfully bowed to Confucius, showing admiration. Then, another student, Zigong, asked, "Master, I think benevolence must be very hard to attain. How should we cultivate it?"
After a moment of thought, Confucius replied, "Cultivating benevolence starts from the basics. Just as a skilled craftsman must first prepare the right tools to create fine work, a state must choose wise and capable ministers to govern the people. For you, it is essential to befriend those who are virtuous. Dyeing red makes you red, dyeing black makes you black—by surrounding yourself with the virtuous and diligently cultivating yourself, you can become a person of benevolence."
Zigong replied, "Master, you are absolutely right. I will follow your words."
"The idiom 'sacrifice oneself to achieve virtue' originally meant one could disregard their own life to fulfill benevolence, later used to describe sacrificing one's life to uphold a cherished cause."
Source: *The Analects*, Chapter "Duke Ling of Wei"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "杀身成仁" came to describe how one could disregard their own life to fulfill benevolence, later sacrificing one's life to uphold a cherished cause.