"
The king said, "You are right; and yet there really was an appearance of
what the people imagined. But though Ts'e be narrow and small, how
should I grudge a bull? Indeed it was because I could not bear its
frightened appearance, as if it were an innocent person going to the
place of death, that therefore I changed it for a sheep."
Mencius said, "Let not your Majesty deem it strange that the people
should think you grudged the animal. When you changed a large one for a
small, how should they know the true reason? If you felt pained by its
being led without any guilt to the place of death, what was there to
choose between a bull and a sheep?" The king laughed and said, "What
really was my mind in the matter? I did not grudge the value of the
bull, and yet I changed it for a sheep! There was reason in the people's
saying that I grudged the creature."
Mencius said, "There is no harm in their saying so. It was an artifice
of benevolence. You saw the bull, and had not seen the sheep. So is the
superior man affected towards animals, that, having seen them alive, he
cannot bear to see them die, and, having heard their dying cries, he
cannot bear to eat their flesh. On this account he keeps away from his
stalls and kitchen."
The king was pleased and said, "The Ode says,
'What other men have in their minds,
I can measure by reflection,'
This might be spoken of you, my Master.
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