Mencius. Book VII: Tsin Sin. Part I. Chapter XXXVII.

Legge's summary: That he be respected is essential to a scholar's engaging in the service of a prince.

1. Mencius said, 'To feed a scholar and not love him, is to treat him as a pig. To love him and not respect him, is to keep him as a domestic animal.

2. 'Honouring and respecting are what exist before any offering of gifts.

3. 'If there be honouring and respecting without the reality of them, a superior man may not be retained by such empty demonstrations.'


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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 schist. Please msg schist if you have suggestions for useful hard-links.