| Tan Gong II: |
During a great dearth in Qi, Qian Ao had food prepared on the roads, to wait the approach of hungry people and give to them. (One day), there came a famished man, looking as if he could hardly see, his face covered with his sleeve, and dragging his feet together. Qian Ao, carrying with his left hand some rice, and holding some drink with the other, said to him, 'Poor man! come and eat.' The man, opening his eyes with a stare, and looking at him, said, 'It was because I would not eat "Poor man come here's" food, that I am come to this state.' Qian Ao immediately apologised for his words, but the man after all would not take the food and died. When Zeng-zi heard the circumstances, he said, 'Was it not a small matter? When the other expressed his pity as he did, the man might have gone away. When he apologised, the man might have taken the food.' |
