Confucius preserved good as model and evil as warning — this is the sage's magnanimous heart.
"This is the sage's heart — how magnanimous and upright!"
爱曰：「存其善而去其恶，可也。何必存其戒？」
先生曰：「此非独《春秋》，凡圣人删述六经，皆是如此。如删诗，录其善者以为法，存其恶者以为戒。此便是圣人之心，何等浑厚正大！若但去其恶，使人无从鉴戒，则是出于私意，非圣人之心矣。」
又曰：「《诗》非孔子删之，鲁国原有之诗。孔子取而录之，以存殷鉴。郑卫之音，非尽去之也，存其可戒者以示后人耳。」
Xu Ai said: "Preserving the good and removing the evil would suffice. Why preserve the warnings?"
The Master said: "This is not only in the Spring and Autumn Annals — whenever the sages edited the Six Classics, it was always thus. For example, in editing the Songs, the good were recorded to serve as models, and the evil were preserved to serve as warnings. This is the sage's heart — how magnanimous and upright! If one merely removed the evil, leaving people nothing to learn from as warning, that would arise from private intention, not from the sage's heart."
He also said: "The Songs were not edited by Confucius alone — the state of Lu already had these poems. Confucius took and recorded them to preserve the mirror of the Yin dynasty. The music of Zheng and Wei was not entirely removed — those that could serve as warnings were preserved to show later generations."
Good education shows both success and failure. Understanding what is wrong is as important as understanding what is right.
Platform content moderation should not simply "delete all negative content." Educationally valuable negative content should be preserved.
"Preserving the good as models, the evil as warnings."
Yangming's understanding of Confucius: not simply removing evil, but preserving both — good as model, evil as warning. Both have educational value. Good deeds are preserved as positive examples; evil deeds are also preserved as negative examples.
"This is the sage's heart — how magnanimous!"
Yangming admires the sage's openness: showing both good and evil, letting later generations judge for themselves. This attitude of "magnanimity and uprightness" is the true spirit of education.
"If one merely removed the evil, that would arise from private intention."
Showing only good seems pure but is actually private intention — it deprives people of the chance to learn from the negative. The sage does not fear showing evil, because evil itself is the best lesson.