This sentence comes from Mencius's "Mencius Gaozi Shang" in the Spring and Autumn Period, the original text:
Mencius said, "Fish is what I want, and bear's paw is what I want; You can't have your cake and eat it. You can't have your cake and eat it. Life is what I want; Righteousness is also what I want; You can't have both, and you have to sacrifice your life for righteousness. Life is what I want. I want it more than the living, so I don't want it. If there is nothing more in disgust than death, what can be done to avoid evil that can be used to escape evil?
Explanation:
Mencius said: "fish is my favorite food, and bear's paw is also my favorite food;" If I can't eat both, I'll give up fish and eat bear's paw. Life is what I want, justice is what I want; If I can't have both, I will give up my life and stick to justice.
Life is what I want to have, but there is something I want to have more than life, so I don't want to drag out an ignoble existence; I hate death, but there is something more disgusting than death, so I don't want to escape some disasters because I hate death.
Extended data
works appreciation
Mencius first made an analogy with specific things familiar in people's lives: fish is what I want, and bear's paw is what I want. I'd rather give up fish than bear's paw if I can't get both at the same time; I cherish life and righteousness. In the case that I can't get both at the same time, I'd rather give up my life and get the essence.
Mencius compared life to a fish and righteousness to a bear's paw, thinking that righteousness is more precious than life, just as bear's paw is more precious than fish, and naturally the idea of "giving up life for righteousness" came into being. This article takes concrete fish and bear's paw as abstract metaphors of life and righteousness, and "taking bear's paw instead of fish" as a clever metaphor of "giving up life for righteousness" is a very famous example.
Secondly, this paper also uses a lot of contrast techniques, such as comparing fish to bear's paw, comparing life to benevolence, comparing people who value righteousness to people, and comparing "what the countryside has done" to "what it has done today", which makes the truth clearer and gives people a particularly deep impression.
Baidu encyclopedia-Mencius accused