人之初，性本善

rén zhī chū , xìng běn shàn

man at birth is fundamentally good in nature (the first two lines of Three Character Classic 三字經|三字经[San1 zi4 Jing1])

人

rén

person; people

之

zhī

(possessive particle, literary equivalent of 的[de5])

初

chū

at first

，

,

性

xìng

nature

本

běn

(bound form) root; stem

善

shàn

good (virtuous)