Page 104 - 《孟子》（一）中·英对照版

?孟
子

“Was it so large as that?” exclaimed the king.
“The people,” said Mencius, “still looked on it
as small.”
The king added, “My park contains only forty
square li, and the people still look on it as large.
How is this?”
“The park of king Wen,” was the reply,
“contained seventy square li, but the grass-cutters
and fuel-gatherers had the privilege of entrance into
it; so also had the catchers of pheasants and hares.
He shared it with the people, and was it not with
reason that they looked on it as small? When I first
arrived at the borders of your kingdom, I inquired
about the great prohibitory regulations, before I
would venture to enter it; and I heard, that inside
the barrier-gates there was a park of forty square li,
and that he who killed a deer in it, was held guilty
of the same crime as if he had killed a man. Thus
those forty square li are a pitfall in the middle of the

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