"Nowadays there is a person who fights against his neighbor's chicken"

Original text

Playing with chickens (1)

"Mencius" (2 )

Today there is a person who fights (3) his neighbor's chicken, or (4) tells him: "This is not the way of a gentleman (5)." He says: "Please hurt it (6), month Grab a chicken and wait for the next year (7). "If you know that it is wrong, then (8) is already over, how can you wait for the next year (9)?

Translation

Nowadays, some people steal their neighbor's chicken every day. He was told that this was not the behavior of a gentleman. The man said: "Then reduce it a bit, steal one chicken every month, and stop this behavior next year." Since you know that doing this is wrong, you should correct it immediately, why wait until next year?

Notes

(1) Stealing and stealing

(2) Selected from "Mencius·Tengwen Gongxia", the title was added by the editor. ["Mencius"] A book written by Meng Ke, a thinker, politician, and educator during the Warring States Period, and his disciples

(3) [Struggle] steal; steal

(4 )[or] some people

(5)[Right and wrong are the ways of a gentleman] This is not what a gentleman should do. Yes: this, this. Gentleman: refers to a person with good conduct. Tao: Action, personal behavior, words and deeds.

(6)[Please lose it] Then reduce it some. Loss, reduction. In other words, it represents the matter of stealing chickens

(7)[has] stopped

(8)[S] Then, it will be

(9)[next year ]Next year

The moral

When you know you have made a mistake, you must make up your mind to correct it immediately. You cannot make excuses to delay time, let alone knowingly!

Enlightenment

1. If you know you are wrong, correct it. Now that you know you are wrong, you should decisively and thoroughly cut off the root of the mistake and completely resolve the wrong behavior. Mistakes are mistakes no matter how big or small, and there is no essential difference; let alone any step-by-step correction. The kind of people who make excuses for their wrong behavior and delay time are actually sincere and have not changed.

Choose the good ones and follow them, and change the bad ones.

2. When you know you have made a mistake, you must make up your mind to correct it immediately. You must not delay it with any excuse, let alone commit it knowingly.

About the author

Mencius (about 372 BC - 289 BC), whose name was Ke and whose courtesy name was Ziyu, was from the state of Zou (southeast of today's Zoucheng, Shandong). A philosopher, thinker, and educator during the Warring States Period. He was a representative figure of the Confucian school after Confucius and before Xunzi. Together with Confucius, he was called "Confucius and Mencius".