“Fish is what I want, bear’s paw is also what I want, you can’t have both, and you would give up fish and take bear’s paw. Life is also what I want, and righteousness is also what I want. What I want is not to have both, but to sacrifice one's life for righteousness."

The literal meaning is very simple, that is: fish and bear's paws are both good things that Mencius likes. If you can't. To get it all together, we have to bear the paw and give up the fish. Similarly, morality and life are what the old man wants to keep. If he cannot get them together, he will not live.

If you look at a little bit of history, you will know that Mencius is the most famous expert on the relationship between justice and benefit in ancient my country. He likes to pit morality and interests against each other. When morality and interests are in opposition, he asks you to make a dilemma. Such a dilemma was not a problem at all for Mencius, because he always chose righteousness.

He believes that righteousness and benefit are two contradictory concepts, and righteousness is more important than benefit. In order to emphasize this point, he said the above paragraph, just to prove that morality is even more important than life. For the sake of morality, he can give up his life, not to mention the benefits that life will not bring and death will not bring. We all know that life is more important than profit. Folks often use "money rather than life" to describe people doing stupid things.

Since life is more important than interests, and morality is more important than life, it is self-evident that morality is more important than interests.

This point of view of Mencius was further interpreted by later generations as being unspeakably beneficial. "The person who speaks profitably" is a common expression in ancient times, which means to call you a villain and a treacherous person. We don’t think much of this word today. But in ancient times, if you were called a "people who speak for profit", the problem would be very serious. This is probably as serious as being called a "counterrevolutionary" today.

Is there anything wrong with this passage from Mencius? I think there are still some problems.

First of all, Mencius used fish and bear's paws to describe the relationship between justice and benefit. This is an inappropriate metaphor for a person like Mencius who despises interests. Why did Mencius want bear's paws instead of fish? Some people say that bear paws are more delicious than fish. This is basically nonsense, and the person who says this must have never eaten bear paws. I think bear paws are not as delicious as fish (don’t doubt that I have never eaten bear paws, my toy for a long time when I was a child was a pair of furry real bear paws). It can be seen that whether bear paws are delicious or not depends purely on people. , I don’t like to eat bear paws, but this does not prevent me from choosing bear paws over fish. Why? All fools know that bear paws are much more expensive than fish.

Therefore, the real and reliable basis for Mencius to choose bear paws is that bear paws are more expensive than fish. In this way, Mencius and others also judged the value of things based on the size of their benefits. Then what reason does he have for others to despise interests? Obviously, Mencius' metaphor violates basic logical common sense.

Mencius also gave an example after this passage to reinforce that morality is more important than life. Mencius went on to say: "A basket of food and a bean soup, if you get it, you will live, if you don't get it, you will die. If you call it, those who practice the Tao will not bear it."

The translation into today's words is: " A bowl of rice and a cup of broth. If you get these, you will live. If you don’t get them, you will starve. (But) if you call them and give them to others, (even) the (hungry) people passing by will not accept them."

Mencius quoted an allusion here, which is the common idiom we use today as "the food that comes".

This idiom comes from "Book of Rites·Tan ??Gong": "There was a great hunger in Qi. Qian Ao waited for the hungry on the road and ate them. There were hungry people who were covered with clothes and kept coming, and they came rashly. Qian Ao held food on the left and drank on the right, saying: "Come on! Come eat!" (The hungry man) raised his eyes and looked at it, saying: "I will not eat the food I came to complain about." So he thanked him. In the end, he died without food."

The translation into today's words is:

"One year, a serious famine occurred in Qi State, and a large number of poor people were forced to die due to lack of food. Starved to death. A nobleman named Qian Ao placed some food on the roadside, waiting for the hungry poor to pass by, and gave it to them. One day, a starving man covered his face with his sleeves and dragged himself. A pair of broken shoes staggered past. When Qian Ao saw it, he picked up the food with his left hand and the soup with his right hand, shouting: "Hey! Come and eat!" The hungry man raised his head and glared at him contemptuously. Qian Ao apologized to the hungry man, but he refused to eat and died of hunger on the roadside.