Mencius 6B.12
Mencius (孟子), Book 6, Part II: Gaozi II 告子下
孟子曰：「君子不亮，惡乎執？」
Mencius said, 'If a scholar have not faith, how shall he take a firm hold of things?'
James Legge (1861), The Works of Mencius, The Chinese Classics vol. 2 (1861; 2nd ed. 1895); romanization modernized on Wikisource — public domain.
Character glossary
- 孟mèngfirst in a series; great, eminent
- 子zison, child; seed, egg; fruit; small thin
- 曰yuēto speak; to say
- 君jūnsovereign, ruler, prince, monarch, chief
- 不bùno, not, un-; negative prefix
- 亮liàngbright, brilliant, radiant, light
- 惡èbad, evil, wicked; to hate, to loathe; f
- 乎hūinterrogative or exclamatory final parti
- 執zhíto execute; to grasp, to hold; to keep;
Passages with shared wording
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.