Leading Beasts to Devour People
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
梁惠王曰:‘寡人愿安承教。’孟子对曰:‘杀人以梃与刃,有以异乎?’曰:‘无以异也。’
English translation
King Hui of Liang said, ‘I would welcome your instruction.’ Mencius asked, ‘Is killing someone with a club different from killing with a blade?’ The king answered, ‘No.’
Original Chinese text
‘以刃与政,有以异乎?’曰:‘无以异也。’
English translation
Mencius asked again, ‘Is killing with a blade different from doing so through government?’ The king answered, ‘No.’
Original Chinese text
曰:‘庖有肥肉,厩有肥马,民有饥色,野有饿莩;此率兽而食人也。’
English translation
Mencius said, ‘There is rich meat in the kitchens and well-fed horses in the stables, while the people look hungry and bodies of the starved lie in the fields. This is like leading beasts to devour people.’
Original Chinese text
‘兽相食,且人恶之;为民父母行政,不免于率兽而食人,恶在其为民父母也?’
English translation
‘People recoil even when beasts devour one another. If a ruler who is meant to be a parent to the people governs in a way that amounts to leading beasts to devour them, in what sense is that ruler a parent to the people?’
Original Chinese text
‘仲尼曰:‘始作俑者,其无后乎?’为其像人而用之也。如之何其使斯民饥而死也!’
English translation
‘Confucius said, “Surely the first person to use human-shaped burial figures will have no descendants!” He condemned the practice because the figures resembled people. How, then, can a ruler let living people starve?’