Mencius 7B.18
Mencius (孟子), Book 7, Part II: Jin Xin II 盡心下
孟子曰：「君子之戹於陳蔡之閒，無上下之交也。」
Mencius said, 'The reason why the superior man was reduced to straits between Chen and Cai was because neither the princes of the time nor their ministers sympathized or communicated with him.'
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
- 之zhīmarks preceding phrase as modifier of fo
- 戹èIn difficulty, distressed
- 於yúat, in, on; to, from; alas!
- 陳chénto display, to exhibit; to plead; surnam
- 蔡càia species of tortoise; surname
- 閒xiánleisure, idle time; tranquil, peaceful,
- 無wúno, not; lacking, -less
- 上shàngabove, on top, superior; to go up; to at
- 下xiàbelow, underneath; inferior; to bring do
- 交jiāoto connect; to deliver, to exchange; to
- 也yěalso, too
Passages with shared wording
- Zhuangzi Mountain Trees
- Zhuangzi The Circling Sky
- Zhuangzi On Declining Power
- The Doctrine of the Mean Passage 20
- Mencius 5B.4
- Analects 11.2
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.