Everyone has a duty toward his country.

This phrase is known to all in China. There are many similar expressions in such classics as The Book of Changes, The Great Learning and Zhong Yong (The Doctrine of the Mean). Mencius left the most citations about this idea.

The phrase finds its closest origination in Ri Zhi Lu (Records of Daily Knowledge) by Gu Yanwu (1613-1682), a thinker and historian in the late Ming (1368-1644) and the early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. He meant that if the whole of society suffers a decline in morals, even an ordinary man must rise up to rescue. In 1915, Liang Qichao (1873-1929), agonizing over the Republican government's signing of an unequal treaty with Japan, wrote an essay to call upon the nation to wipe out the humiliation through reform. He sighed in the essay, "Gu Yanwu was right to say that every man has a duty toward his country."

Xi Jinping has quoted Gu Yanwu on more than one occasion. At a gathering in September 2014 to mark the 69th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World War II, he said that the Chinese people had formed a great spirit of resistance during the war, as everyone showed their duty toward their beloved homeland.

天下興亡，匹夫有責

“天下興亡，匹夫有責”流傳極廣。形成這一觀念的思想淵源，可以追溯于《周易》《大學》《中庸》等典籍，以孟子之學最為集中。而“天下興亡，匹夫有責”的說法則可溯源于顧炎武《日知錄》，本意是指若整個社會出現道德沉淪，那么即使是普通民眾也應當奮起救贖。1915年，梁啟超有感于民國政府與日本簽訂不平等條約的屈辱，寫下《痛定罪言》一文，認為欲雪國恥的關鍵在于“我輩之自新”：“斯乃真顧亭林所謂‘天下興亡，匹夫有責’也。”

習近平多次引用“天下興亡，匹夫有責”這句話。2014年9月，他在紀念中國人民抗日戰爭暨世界反法西斯戰爭勝利69周年座談會上指出，在中國人民抗日戰爭的壯闊進程中，形成了偉大的抗戰精神，中國人民向世界展示了“天下興亡，匹夫有責”的愛國情懷。