Page 289 - 《孟子》(三)中·英对照版
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子
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being the result of it. If you, starting from the ground
of benevolence and righteousness, offer your counsels
to the kings of Qin and Chu, and if those kings are
pleased with the consideration of benevolence and
righteousness so as to stop the operations of their
armies, then all belonging to those armies will rejoice
in the stopping from war, and find their pleasure
in benevolence and righteousness. Ministers will
serve their sovereign, cherishing the principles of
benevolence and righteousness; sons will serve their
fathers, and younger brothers will serve their elder
brothers, in the same way—and so, sovereign and
minister, father and son, elder brother and younger,
abandoning the thought of profit, will cherish the
principles of benevolence and righteousness, and
carry on all their intercourse upon them. But never
has there been such a state of society, without the
state where it prevailed rising to the royal sway. Why
must you use that word ‘profit?’ ’’
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