or: Plus Mandarin Pinyin & Cantonese Pronunciation

I translate jin^ (谨) in jin^ xin` (谨信) as “being reverent” and not as as “being careful” or “being cautious” the way most Di Zi Gui websites have it. That’s because I believe the jin being used here means gong- jin^ (恭谨) and not jin^ shen` (谨慎). Indeed, if one looks carefully at the verses in the section on jin in Di Zi Gui (verses 57-86), one can see that they are about living life reverently: being clean, being neat, being tidy, being careful with possessions, being careful with one’s movements, and so forth. Living one’s life reverently includes living one’s life carefully, but it is much more than that. While living one's life carefully doesn't necessarily involve being good to others, living one's life reverently always does. Moreover, it involves being good to oneself. Living life revently means always maintaining, in whatever how small or everyday a thing we do, a high degree of respect for all around us as well as a high degree of respect for ourselves. Maintaining a high degree of respect for ourselves is not an exhortation to be arrogant, but is in the spirit of the traditional Chinese exhortations to never abuse oneself and to never give up on oneself, but to value and love oneself and thus to strive to reach ever higher (切勿自暴自棄，必 須自重自爱，力爭上游).

So Di Zi Gui is teaching a very lofty state of mind indeed, one that is far above simply being "careful".

The first four verses (v. 57-60) in Di Zi Gui talk about being reverent to one's youth and body. Then the next six verses (v. 61-66) talk about being reverent to one's attire. The next sixteen verses (v. 67-82) talk about being reverent to one's body, bearing and movements and being reverent to the surrounding things and matters. Then the next four verses (v. 83-86) talk about being reverent to people around one. Right after that, with the verse on "when borrowing other people’s things" (v. 87), Di Zi Gui switches to the section on "Being Trustworthy (Xin)", which is one of the most important aspects of being respectful to people around oneself.