Coming or Going Is Not Ours to Command
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
鲁平公将出,嬖人臧仓者请曰:‘他日君出,则必命有司所之。今乘舆已驾矣,有司未知所之,敢请。’公曰:‘将见孟子。’
English translation
Duke Ping of Lu was about to go out. His favored attendant Zang Cang asked, ‘On other occasions you tell the officers where you are going. Your carriage is ready, but they still do not know the destination. May I ask?’ The duke said, ‘I am going to see Mencius.’
Original Chinese text
曰:‘何哉,君所为轻身以先于匹夫者?以为贤乎?礼义由贤者出;而孟子之后丧逾前丧。君无见焉!’公曰:‘诺。’
English translation
Zang Cang said, ‘Why lower your standing to visit an ordinary man first? Do you regard him as worthy? Ritual and righteousness should come from the worthy, yet Mencius's later mourning was more elaborate than his earlier mourning. Do not go to him.’ The duke agreed.
Original Chinese text
乐正子入见,曰:‘君奚为不见孟轲也?’曰:‘或告寡人曰,孟子之后丧逾前丧,是以不往见也。’
English translation
Yuezheng entered and asked the duke, ‘Why did you not go to see Meng Ke?’ The duke replied, ‘Someone told me that the later funeral rites Mencius conducted were more elaborate than the earlier ones, so I did not go.’
Original Chinese text
曰:‘何哉,君所谓逾者?前以士,后以大夫;前以三鼎,而后以五鼎与?’曰:‘否,谓棺椁衣衾之美也。’
English translation
Yuezheng asked, ‘What do you mean by “exceeded”? Was the first funeral conducted as for a scholar and the later one as for a grandee—three ritual vessels before, five afterward?’ ‘No,’ said the duke. ‘I mean the finer coffin, outer coffin, and burial clothes.’
Original Chinese text
曰:‘非所谓逾也,贫富不同也。’乐正子见孟子,曰:‘克告于君,君为来见也。嬖人有臧仓者沮君,君是以不果来也。’
English translation
‘That is not a breach of rank,’ Yuezheng said. ‘The family's means had changed.’ Later he told Mencius, ‘I spoke to the duke, and he intended to visit you. His favored attendant Zang Cang dissuaded him, so he did not come.’
Original Chinese text
曰:‘行或使之;止或尼之。行、止,非人所能也。吾之不遇鲁侯,天也。臧氏之子,焉能使予不遇哉?’
English translation
Mencius said, ‘Someone may help a journey begin, and someone may obstruct it. Yet whether one goes or stops is not finally within human control. That I did not meet the ruler of Lu is Heaven's doing. How could a son of the Zang family cause me not to meet him?’