This sentence is: Yu Wei doesn’t eat the food he complains about, and this is what he is doing!

Source: Spring and Autumn Period·Mencius "Mencius" Qi Great Hunger. Qian Ao placed food on the road, waiting for the hungry to eat. If there are hungry people, they will pick up their clothes and come here. Qian Ao held food on his left and a drink on his right, saying: "Come! Come eat!" He raised his eyes and looked at it, saying: "I will not eat the food that came to me, what a shame!" Then he thanked him and died without eating. . Zengzi heard about it and said: "Weiyu! If you sigh, you can go away; if you give thanks, you can eat it."

Vernacular interpretation:

There is a serious famine in Qi. Qian Ao prepared meals on the roadside for the hungry people passing by. A hungry man walked towards the place, covered his face with the sleeve, his feet shoddy, and his eyes dull. Qian Ao held food in his left hand and soup in his right hand, and said: "Hey! Come and eat!"

The hungry man looked up at him and said, "Because I don't eat the food given by others, That's why we ended up in this situation!" Qian Ao caught up with him and apologized, but he eventually starved to death because he didn't eat. When Zengzi heard about this, he said: "I'm afraid it doesn't have to be like this! When Qian Ao calls rudely, you can certainly refuse, but after he apologizes, you can go and eat." Extended information

Writing background:

Confucius’s “benevolence” is a conscious morality; Mencius’s “benevolence” also has the function of education. The monarch should cultivate virtue, which is a condition for implementing benevolent government, so it is advocated that "those with virtue govern". Opposing hegemony Mencius advocates benevolent government that uses virtue to convince people, and opposes hegemony that uses force to convince people. The purpose is to alleviate the suffering of people's livelihood and ease social conflicts. Therefore, Mencius advocates "kingly politics" and opposes hegemony to convince people.

Restore the well-field system Mencius believed that the ideal economic system was the "well-field system". The "well field system" means that the land is publicly owned by the state, and the state grants the land to the people for farming, but the people also have to help cultivate the public land and pay taxes. Therefore, farmers will have "permanent property" (permanent fixed land property), and the country will be stable.

Mencius believed that we should "find the world's talents and educate them" and advocated personality and moral education. He said: "I would like to follow the teachings of Xiangxu and express the meaning of filial piety and brotherhood." Moreover, Mencius believed that self-cultivation is the basis of learning, but he also believed that people's good nature cannot be cultivated from the outside (education can only play a role in influencing), and it must ultimately be achieved by one's own thinking. In terms of self-cultivation methods, we advocate free development and take advantage of the situation.

In addition, Mencius also attached great importance to the learning environment. Only by placing students in a good environment and providing spontaneous education can they succeed. The influence of Mencius' theory on later generations inspired the unexplained Neo-Confucianism.

Mencius proposed the "Learning of the Inner Sage" and pointed out that human nature is good, as long as everyone expands his good nature, suppresses his materialistic nature, and reflects on himself. This introspective cultivation method became the mainstream of Confucianism in later generations. Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, Lu Jiuyuan, Wang Yangming and other Neo-Confucianists of the Song and Ming dynasties all inherited Mencius's teachings in this area.

Mencius inherited and developed Confucius’ thoughts on moral governance and developed it into the theory of benevolent government, which became the core of his political thought. He applied the principles of "kinship" and "longevity" to politics to ease class conflicts and safeguard the long-term interests of the feudal ruling class.

On the one hand, Mencius strictly distinguished the class status of the rulers and the ruled. He believed that "those who work hard govern others, and those who work hard govern others." hierarchical system; on the other hand, it compares the relationship between rulers and the ruled to the relationship between parents and children, advocating that rulers should care about the people's sufferings like parents, and people should get close to and serve the rulers like their parents. .