תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

2. "When a man's finger is not like those of other people, he knows to feel dissatisfied, but if his mind be not like that of other people, he does not know to feel dissatisfaction. This is called-Ignorance of the relative importance of things."

66

XIII. Mencius said, “ Anybody who wishes to culti vate the tung or the tsze, which may be grasped with both hands, perhaps with one, knows by what means to nourish them. In the case of their own persons, men do not know by what means to nourish them. Is it to be supposed that their regard of their own persons is inferior to their regard for a tung or a tsze? Their want of reflection is extreme."

XIV. 1. Mencius said, "There is no part of himself which a man does not love, and as he loves all, so he must nourish all. There is not an inch of skin which he does not love, and so there is not an inch of skin which he will not nourish. For examining whether his way of nourishing be good or not, what other rule is there but this, that he determine by reflecting on himself where it should be applied?

2. "Some parts of the body are noble, and some ignoble; some great, and some small. The great must not be injured for the small, nor the noble for the ignoble. He who nourishes the little belonging to him is a little man, and he who nourishes the great is a great

man.

3. "Here is a plantation-keeper, who neglects his woo and kea, and cultivates his sour wild date-trées ;he is a poor plantation-keeper.

4. "He who nourishes one of his fingers, neglecting his shoulders or his back, without knowing that he is doing so, is a man who resembles a hurried wolf.

5. "A man who only eats and drinks is counted mean by others;-because he nourishes what is little to the neglect of what is great.

6. "If a man, fond of his eating and drinking, were not to neglect what is of more importance, how should his mouth and belly be considered as no more than an inch of skin?"

XV. 1. The disciple Kung-too said, " All are equally men, but some are great men, and some are little men ;-how is this?" Mencius replied, "Those who follow that part of themselves which is great are great men; those who follow that part which is little are little men."

2. Kung-too pursued, "All are equally men, but some follow that part of themselves which is great, and some follow that part which is little ;-how is this?" Mencius answered, "The senses of hearing and seeing do not think, and are obscured by external things. When one thing comes into contact with another, as a matter of course it leads it away. To the mind belongs the office of thinking. By thinking, it gets the right view of things; by neglecting to think, it fails to do this. These the senses and the mind-are what Heaven has given to us. Let a man first stand fast in the supremacy of the nobler part of his constitution, and the inferior part will not be able to take it from him. It is simply this which makes the great man."

XVI. 1. Mencius said, "There is a nobility of Heaven, and there is a nobility of man. Benevolence righteousness, self-consecration, and fidelity, with un wearied joy in these virtues ;-these constitute the nobility of Heaven. To be a kung, a king, or a ta-foo -this constitutes the nobility of man.

2. "The men of antiquity cultivated their nobility of Heaven, and the nobility of man came to them in its train.

3. "The men of the present day cultivate their nobility of Heaven in order to seek for the nobility of man, and when they have obtained that, they throw

away the other:-their delusion is extreme. The issue is simply this that they must lose that nobility of man as well."

XVII. 1. Mencius said, " To desire to be honoured is the common mind of men. And all men have in themselves that which is truly honourable. Only they do not think of it.

2. "The honour which men confer is not good honour. Those whom Chaou the Great ennobles he can make mean again.

3. "It is said in the Book of Poetry,

'He has filled us with his wine,

He has satiated us with his goodness.'

'Satiated us with his goodness,' that is, satiated us with benevolence and righteousness, and he who is so, consequently, does not wish for the fat meat and fine millet of men. A good reputation and far-reaching praise fall to him, and he does not desire the elegant embroidered garments of men."

XVIII. 1. Mencius said, "Benevolence subdues its opposite just as water subdues fire. Those, however, who now-a-days practise benevolence do it as if with one cup of water they could save a whole waggon-load of fuel which was on fire, and when the flames were not extinguished, were to say that water cannot subdue fire. This conduct, moreover, greatly encourages those who are not benevolent.

2. "The final issue will simply be this-the loss of that small amount of benevolence."

XIX. Mencius said, "Of all seeds the best are the five kinds of grain, yet if they be not ripe, they are not equal to the t'e or the pae. So, the value of benevolence depends entirely on its being brought to maturity."

XX. 1. Mencius said, "E, in teaching men to shoot, made it a rule to draw the bow to the full, and his pupils also did the same.

co

$

2. "A master workman, in teaching others, uses the compass and square, and his pupils do the same.

BOOK VI.

KAOU TSZE. PART II.

CHAPTER I. 1. A man of Jin asked the disciple Uhloo, saying, "Is an observance of the rules of propriety in regard to eating, or the eating, the more important?' The answer was, "The observance of the rules of propriety is the more important."

2. "Is the gratifying the appetite of sex, or the doing so only according to the rules of propriety, the more important?" The answer again was," The observance of the rules of propriety in the matter is the more important."

3. The man pursued, "If the result of eating only according to the rules of propriety will be death by starvation, while by disregarding those rules we may get food, must they still be observed in such a case? If according to the rule that he shall go in person to meet his wife a man cannot get married, while by disregarding that rule he may get married, must he stil! observe the rule in such a case?"

4. Uh-loo was unable to reply to these questions, and the next day he went to Tsow, and told them to Mencius. Mencius said, "What difficulty is there in answering these inquiries?

5. "If you do not adjust them at their lower ex

[ocr errors]

tremities, but only put their tops on a level, a piece of wood an inch square may be made to be higher than the pointed peak of a high building.

6. "Gold is heavier than feathers;-but does that saying have reference, on the one hand, to a single clasp of gold, and, on the other, to a waggon-load of feathers?

7. "If you take a case where the eating is of the utmost importance and the observing the rules of propriety is of little importance, and compare the things together, why stop with saying merely that the eating is more important? So, taking the case where the gratifying the appetite of sex is of the utmost importance and the observing the rules of propriety is of little importance, why stop with merely saying that the gratifying the appetite is the more important?

8. "Go and answer him thus, 'If, by twisting your elder brother's arm, and snatching from him what he is eating, you can get food for yourself, while, if you do not do so, you will not get anything to eat, will you so twist his arm? If by getting over your neighbour's wall, and dragging away his virgin daughter, you can get a wife, while if you do not do so, you will not be able to get a wife, will you so drag her away?""

II. I. Keaou of Tsaou asked Mencius, saying, "It is said, 'All men may be Yaous and Shuns;'-is it so?" Mencius replied, "It is."

2. Keaou went on, "I have heard that king Wan was ten cubits high, and Tang nine. Now I am nine cubits four inches in height. But I can do nothing but eat my millet. What am I to do to realize that saying?"

3. Mencius answered him, "What has this-the question of size-to do with the matter? It all lies simply in acting as such. Here is a man, whose strength was not equal to lift a duckling :-he was then a man of no strength. But to-day he says, 'I can lift 3,000 catties'

« הקודםהמשך »