The Company One Keeps

Contents

Text

English translation

Original Chinese text

English translation

Mencius said to Dai Busheng, “Do you want your king to become good? Let me make this plain. Suppose a nobleman of Chu wanted his son to learn the speech of Qi. Would he employ a man of Qi to teach him, or a man of Chu?”

Original Chinese text

English translation

Dai replied, “I would have a man of Qi teach him.”

Original Chinese text

English translation

Mencius said, “If one man of Qi taught him while many people of Chu kept shouting around him, you could beat him every day and still never make him speak Qi. Take him and let him live for several years amid Zhuang and Yue in the capital of Qi: you could beat him every day to make him speak Chu, and still fail. You say Xue Juzhou is a good man, so you have him live at court. If everyone there, high and low, young and old, were like Xue, whom could the king join in doing wrong? If no one there were like Xue, whom could he join in doing right? What can one Xue Juzhou do for the King of Song by himself?”

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