Mencius. Book 3, Part 2, Chapter 8.
Book 3, T'ang Wan Kung. Part 2.
1. Tae Ying-che 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?"
2. 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's; 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.'
3. "If you know that the thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it: ‹ why wait till next year?"
Book 3, T'ang Wan Kung. Part 2.
1. Tae Ying-che 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?"
2. 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's; 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.'
3. "If you know that the thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting an end to it: ‹ why wait till next year?"
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Text source: The Works of Mencius. Translated by James Legge.
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