Page 26 - 《孟子》（一）中·英对照版

?孟
子

Mencius replied, “Why must Your Majesty
use that word ‘profit?’ What I am provided with,
are counsels to benevolence and righteousness,
and these are my only topics. If Your Majesty say,
‘What is to be done to profit my kingdom?’ the great
officers will say, ‘What is to be done to profit our
families?’ and the inferior officers and the common
people will say, ‘What is to be done to profit our
persons?’ Superiors and inferiors will try to snatch
this profit the one from the other, and the kingdom
will be endangered. In the kingdom of ten thousand
chariots, the murderer of his sovereign shall be
the chief of a family of a thousand chariots. In the
kingdom of a thousand chariots, the murderer of
his prince shall be the chief of a family of a hundred
chariots. To have a thousand in ten thousand, and
a hundred in a thousand, cannot be said not to be a
large allotment, but if righteousness be put last, and
profit be put first, they will not be satisfied without

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