Follow us on Facebook to receive important updates Follow us on Twitter to receive important updates Follow us on sina.com's microblogging site to receive important updates Follow us on Douban to receive important updates
Chinese Text Project
Back Forward
Confucianism -> Mengzi -> Li Lou II -> 56

孟子Mencius said,
君子'That whereby the superior man is distinguished from other men
is what he preserves in his heart
君子- namely, benevolence and propriety.
The benevolent man loves others.
The man of propriety shows respect to others.
He who loves others is constantly loved by them.
He who respects others is constantly respected by them.
Here is a man,
who treats me in a perverse and unreasonable manner.
君子 The superior man in such a case will turn round upon himself,
"I must have been wanting in benevolence;
I must have been wanting in propriety
- how should this have happened to me?"
He examines himself, and is specially benevolent.
He turns round upon himself, and is specially observant of propriety.
The perversity and unreasonableness of the other, however, are still the same.
君子 The superior man will again turn round on himself,
"I must have been failing to do my utmost."
He turns round upon himself, and proceeds to do his utmost,
but still the perversity and unreasonableness of the other are repeated.
君子 On this the superior man says,
"This is a man utterly lost indeed!
Since he conducts himself so, what is there to choose between him and a brute?
?』 Why should I go to contend with a brute?"
君子Thus it is that the superior man has a life-long anxiety
and not one morning's calamity.
As to what is matter of anxiety to him, that indeed be has.
He says, "Shun was a man,
and I also am a man.
天下 But Shun became an example to all the kingdom,
and his conduct was worthy to be handed down to after ages,
while I am nothing better than a villager."
This indeed is the proper matter of anxiety to him.
And in what way is he anxious about it?
Just that he maybe like Shun: then only will he stop.
君子As to what the superior man would feel to be a calamity, there is no such thing.
He does nothing which is not according to propriety.
If there should befall him one morning's calamity,
君子。」 the superior man does not account it a calamity.'


Enjoy this site? Please help.Site design and content copyright 2006-2024. When quoting or citing information from this site, please link to the corresponding page or to https://ctext.org. Please note that the use of automatic download software on this site is strictly prohibited, and that users of such software are automatically banned without warning to save bandwidth. 沪ICP备09015720号-3Comments? Suggestions? Please raise them here.