| | 告子下: |
白圭曰：「吾欲二十而取一，何如？」 |
| Gaozi II: |
Bai Gui said, 'I want to take a twentieth of the produce only as the tax. What do you think of it?' |
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孟子曰：「子之道，貉道也。萬室之國，一人陶，則可乎？」 |
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Mencius said, 'Your way would be that of the Mo. In a country of ten thousand families, would it do to have only one potter?' |
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曰：「不可，器不足用也。」 |
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Gui replied, 'No. The vessels would not be enough to use.' |
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曰：「夫貉，五穀不生，惟黍生之。無城郭、宮室、宗廟、祭祀之禮，無諸侯幣帛饔飧，無百官有司，故二十取一而足也。今居中國，去人倫，無君子，如之何其可也？陶以寡，且不可以為國，況無君子乎？欲輕之於堯舜之道者，大貉小貉也；欲重之於堯舜之道者，大桀小桀也。」 |
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Mencius went on, 'In Mo all the five kinds of grain are not grown; it only produces the millet. There are no fortified cities, no edifices, no ancestral temples, no ceremonies of sacrifice; there are no princes requiring presents and entertainments; there is no system of officers with their various subordinates. On these accounts a tax of one-twentieth of the produce is sufficient there. But now it is the Middle Kingdom that we live in. To banish the relationships of men, and have no superior men - how can such a state of things be thought of? With but few potters a kingdom cannot subsist; how much less can it subsist without men of a higher rank than others? If we wish to make the taxation lighter than the system of Yao and Shun, we shall just have a great Mo and a small Mo. If we wish to make it heavier, we shall just have the great Jie and the small Jie.' |
