Tâi Ying-chih said to Mencius, 'I am not able at present and immediately to do with the levying of a tithe only, and abolishing the duties charged at the passes and in the markets. With your leave I will lighten, however, both the tax and the duties, until next year, and will then make an end of them. What do you think of such a course?'Go here to read the introductory post to this serialized version of the Works of Mencius.
Mencius said, 'Here is a man, who every day appropriates some of his neighbor's strayed fowls. Some one says to him, "Such is not the way of a good man;" and he replies, "With your leave I will diminish my appropriations, and will take only one fowl a month, until next year, when I will make an end of the practice."
'If you know that the thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it: why wait till next year?'
~ James Legge translation via nothingistic.org ~
Monday, August 13, 2012
Mencius - Book 3, Part 2, Chapter 8
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