Page 229 - 《孟子》（三）中·英对照版

告
子
上

death, why should he not do everything by which
he could avoid danger? There are cases when men
by a certain course might preserve life, and they do
not employ it; when by certain things they might
avoid danger, and they will not do them. Therefore,
men have that which they like more than life, and
that which they dislike more than death. They are
not men of distinguished talents and virtue only
who have this mental nature. All men have it; what
belongs to such men is simply that they do not lose
it. Here are a small basket of rice and a platter of
soup, and the case is one in which the getting them
will preserve life, and the want of them will be death;
—if they are offered with an insulting voice, even a
tramper will not receive them, or if you first tread
upon them, even a beggar will not stoop to take
them. And yet a man will accept of ten thousand
zhong, without any consideration of propriety or
righteousness. What can the ten thousand zhong

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