Page 41 - 《孟子》（二）中·英对照版

滕
文
公
上

相助，疾病相扶持，则百姓亲睦。方里而井，
井九百亩，其中为公田。八家皆私百亩，同
养公田。公事毕，然后敢治私事，所以别野
人也。此其大略也。若夫润泽［11］之，则在君
与子矣。”

The duke Wen of Teng asked Mencius about
the proper way of governing a kingdom. Mencius
said, “The business of the people may not be
remissly attended to. It is said in the Book of Poetry,
‘In the daylight go and gather the grass. And at night
twist your ropes, then get up quickly on the roofs;
—soon must we begin sowing again the grain.’ The
way of the people is this: —If they have a certain
livelihood, they will have a fixed heart; if they have
not a certain livelihood, they have not a fixed heart.
If they have not a fixed heart, there is nothing which
they will not do in the way of self-abandonment, of
moral deflection, of depravity, and of wild license.

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