“I have spent a lot of time and effort,” stated King
Hui of the state of Liang, “ on governing my country. When there is a bad
harvest in Henei, north of the Yellow River, I evacuate the people to Hedong,
east of the Yellow River and move the grain of
Hedong to Henei. When the harvest is bad in Hedong I would do the same for
them. As far as I could see, none of the rulers of the neighboring states does
not decrease and the number of my subjects does not increase. Why is this so?”
“My lord likes fighting battles,” replied Mencius, “so I will use an analogy from war: imagine
battledrums thundering and weapons clashing. At this time some soldiers abandon
their armour and run away, dragging their weapons behind them. Some stop after
going on hundred
paces.
Other halt after fifty
paces.
Those who ran only fifty paces laughed at those who ran a hundred. What do you
think?”
“That’s not right. It’s just that they didn’t go a
hundred paces, but they did run away all the same.”
“My lord, if you understand this, then you should not
cherish hopes of having more subjects than your neighbours.”
没有评论:
发表评论