Page 74 - 《孟子》（一）中·英对照版

?孟
子

your territories, to have Qin and Chu wait at your
court, to rule the Middle Kingdom, and to attract
to you the barbarous tribes that surround it. But
doing what you do to seek for what you desire is like
climbing a tree to seek for fish.”

The king said, “Is it so bad as that?”
“It is even worse,” was the reply. “If you climb
a tree to seek for fish, although you do not get the
fish, you will not suffer any subsequent calamity. But
doing what you do to seek for what you desire, doing
it moreover with all your heart, you will assuredly
afterwards meet with calamities.”
The king asked, “May I hear from you the
proof of that?”
Mencius said, “If the people of Zou should
fight with the people of Chu, which of them does
Your Majesty think would conquer?”
“The people of Chu would conquer.”
“Yes; —and so it is certain that a small country

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