Teaching Children

Contents

Text

English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation

Gongsun Chou asked, “Why does a gentleman not teach his own son?”

Original Chinese text

English translation

Mencius said, “The relationship makes it impracticable. A teacher must teach by what is right. If that fails, anger follows; when anger follows, father and son end up harming one another. The son may say, ‘You teach me what is right, but you yourself do not act rightly.’ Then father and son wound one another. That is bad. In antiquity, people exchanged sons to teach them. Between father and son one does not demand goodness from the other; demanding it drives them apart, and no ill fortune is greater than that separation.”

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