Benevolence as Home, Righteousness as a Road

Text

English translation

孟（mèng）子（zǐ）曰（yuē）：（）“（）自（zì）暴（bào）者（zhě），（）不（bù）可（kě）与（yǔ）有（yǒu）言（yán）也（yě）；（）自（zì）弃（qì）者（zhě），（）不（bù）可（kě）与（yǔ）有（yǒu）为（wéi）也（yě）。（）言（yán）非（fēi）礼（lǐ）义（yì），（）谓（wèi）之（zhī）自（zì）暴（bào）也（yě）；（）吾（wú）身（shēn）不（bù）能（néng）居（jū）仁（rén）由（yóu）义（yì），（）谓（wèi）之（zhī）自（zì）弃（qì）也（yě）。（）”（）“（）仁（rén），（）人（rén）之（zhī）安（ān）宅（zhái）也（yě）；（）义（yì），（）人（rén）之（zhī）正（zhèng）路（lù）也（yě）。（）旷（kuàng）安（ān）宅（zhái）而（ér）弗（fú）居（jū），（）舍（shě）正（zhèng）路（lù）而（ér）不（bù）由（yóu），（）哀（āi）哉（zāi）！（）”（）

Mencius said, “One who harms himself cannot be meaningfully spoken with; one who abandons himself cannot be meaningfully worked with. To speak contrary to ritual and right is to harm oneself; to say that one cannot dwell in benevolence and follow rightness is to abandon oneself. Benevolence is a person’s secure dwelling, and rightness is the person’s proper road. To leave that dwelling empty and not live there, to abandon the proper road and not follow it—how lamentable!”

Text size

Line spacing

Benevolence as Home, Righteousness as a Road

Contents

Text

English translation

Feedback

Text

English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation