Page 51 - 《孟子》（三）中·英对照版

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not treating Yao as a minister, I have received
your instructions. But it is said in the Book of
Poetry, ‘Under the whole heaven, every spot is the
sovereign’s ground; to the borders of the land, every
individual is the sovereign’s minister.’ —And Shun
had become sovereign. I venture to ask how it was
that Gusou was not one of his ministers.”

Mencius answered, “That ode is not to be
understood in that way: —It speaks of being
laboriously engaged in the sovereign’s business, so
as not to be able to nourish one’s parents, as if the
author said, ‘This is all the sovereign’s business, and
how is it that I alone am supposed to have ability,
and am made to toil in it?’ Therefore, those who
explain the odes, may not insist on one term so as
to do violence to a sentence, nor on a sentence so
as to do violence to the general scope. They must
try with their thoughts to meet that scope, and
then we shall apprehend it. If we simply take single

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