Original text:

Gao Zi said, "Food, color and sex are also important. Benevolence, inside, not outside; Righteousness, outside, not inside. "

Mencius said, "Why do you call benevolence inside and righteousness outside?"

Yue: "I am good at what I am good at, but I am not good at what I am." If you are still white and I am white, it is also white from the outside, so it is called outside. "

Translation:

Gao Zi said, "eat drink man woman, this is nature. Benevolence is an internal thing, not an external thing, and righteousness is an external thing, not an internal thing. "

Mencius said: "What do you mean that benevolence is an internal thing and righteousness is an external thing?"

Gao Zi said: "I respect him when he is old, and the respect for the elderly is not inherent in me;" This is like a foreign object is white, so I think it is white. This is because the white of the foreign object is known to me, so it is an external thing. "

Source: Mencius told his son-Mencius in the Warring States Period

Extended data

Mencius Gaozi records the discussion about human morality between Mencius and his student Gaozi (a student of Mozi). Similar to the Analects of Confucius; It is a relatively complete embodiment of Mencius' theory of good nature. What is linked is the question of benevolence, righteousness, morality and personal accomplishment. It also deals with issues such as spirit and matter, sensibility and rationality, human nature and animality, and the whole article has 20 chapters.

It recorded Mencius' thoughts on governing the country, political views (benevolence, Wang Ba's debate, people-oriented, respecting the right and wrong of monarch's heart, people being your country, followed by monarch being lighter) and political actions. The book was written in the middle of the Warring States Period and belongs to Confucian classics.

The starting point of his theory is the theory of good nature and advocates the rule of virtue. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi called Mencius, The Analects of Confucius, Daxue and The Doctrine of the Mean "Four Books". Since the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has been regarded as a book handed down from family to family. Just like today's textbooks.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Mencius Gaozi