filial piety begins with not harming one's own body
Proverb from The Classic of Filial Piety (孝経). Teaches that because one's body is a gift from one's parents, preserving it from injury is the first step of filial devotion. Used in traditional ethical contexts; rarely heard in daily conversation.
The phrase 'filial piety begins with not harming one's own body, as one's entire body was given by one's parents' is a passage from The Classic of Filial Piety.
Full kanji form of the proverb, as recorded.
Variant with 始 instead of 始め; same reading and meaning.
A direct quotation from the Confucian text 孝経 (The Classic of Filial Piety), attributed to Confucius. The expression is a classical Chinese-Japanese reading (kanbun kundoku) of the original Chinese passage.