Mencius. Book VI: Kâo Tsze. Part I. Chapter XIV.
Legge's summary: The attention given by men to the nourishment of the different parts of their nature must be regulated by the relative importance of those parts.
1. Mencius said, 'There is no part of himself which a man does not love, and as he loves all, so he must nourish all. There is not an inch of skin which he does not love, and so there is not an inch of skin which he will not nourish. For examining whether his way of nourishing be good or not, what other rule is there but this, that he determine by reflecting on himself where it should be applied?
2. 'Some parts of the body are noble, and some ignoble; some great, and some small. The great must not be injured for the small, nor the noble for the ignoble. He who nourishes the little belonging to him is a little man, and he who nourishes the great is a great man.
3. 'Here is a plantation-keeper, who neglects his wû and chiâ, and cultivates his sour jujube-trees;-- he is a poor plantation-keeper.
4. 'He who nourishes one of his fingers, neglecting his shoulders or his back, without knowing that he is doing so, is a man who resembles a hurried wolf.
5. 'A man who only eats and drinks is counted mean by others;-- because he nourishes what is little to the neglect of what is great.
6. 'If a man, fond of his eating and drinking, were not to neglect what is of more importance, how should his mouth and belly be considered as no more than an inch of skin?'
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Translated by
James Legge, published in 1861 and revised for publication in 1895. Prepared as etext by Stephen R. McIntyre. Noded by
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