Mencius 4B.32
Mencius (孟子), Book 4, Part II: Li Lou II 離婁下
儲子曰：「王使人瞷夫子，果有以異於人乎？」孟子曰：「何以異於人哉？堯舜與人同耳。」
The officer Chu said to Mencius, 'Master, the king sent persons to spy out whether you were really different from other men.'
Mencius said, 'How should I be different from other men? Yao and Shun were just the same as other men.'
James Legge (1861), The Works of Mencius, The Chinese Classics vol. 2 (1861; 2nd ed. 1895); romanization modernized on Wikisource — public domain.
Character glossary
- 儲chǔto save money, to store, to reserve; hei
- 子zison, child; seed, egg; fruit; small thin
- 曰yuēto speak; to say
- 王wángking, ruler; royal; surname
- 使shǐcause, mission, orders; envoy, messenger
- 人rénman, person; people
- 瞷jiànspy, peep; cornea
- 夫fūman, husband; worker; those
- 果guǒfruit, nut; result
- 有yǒuto have, to own, to possess; to exist
- 以yǐaccording to; so as to; because of; then
- 異yìdifferent, strange, unusual; foreign; su
- 於yúat, in, on; to, from; alas!
- 乎hūinterrogative or exclamatory final parti
- 孟mèngfirst in a series; great, eminent
- 何héwhat, why, where, which, how
- 哉zāifinal exclamatory particle
- 堯yáoa legendary ancient emperor-sage
- 舜shùnlegendary ruler
- 與yǔand; with; to; for; to give, to grant
- 同tóngsame, similar; together with, alike
- 耳ěrear; to hear, to hear of; handle
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi Kêng Sang Ch’u
- Mencius 6B.5
- Mencius 7A.25
- Zhuangzi The Identity of Contraries
- Zhuangzi Man Among Men
- Mencius 3A.4
Data: English Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0); Chinese Wikisource (Public domain texts; transcription CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.