Zhou as a Mere Man

Contents

Text

English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation

King Xuan of Qi asked, ‘Did Tang banish Jie, and King Wu attack Zhou? Is that so?’ Mencius replied, ‘The transmitted accounts record it.’

Original Chinese text

English translation

‘May a minister kill his ruler?’ the king asked. Mencius replied, ‘One who destroys benevolence is called a thief; one who destroys what is right is called cruel. A person who ruins both is merely a man, no longer a ruler in the moral sense.’

Original Chinese text

English translation

‘I have heard that the mere man Zhou was executed. I have not heard that a ruler was murdered.’

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