孟子對曰：“王好戰，請以戰喻填然鼓之，兵刃既接，棄甲曳兵而走。或百步而後止，或五十步而後止以五十步笑百步，則何如何？” Mencius replied, "Your majesty is fond off war; please allow me to use war as an analogy. Thunderingly, they drum the solders into battle, and when their weapon blades meet each other, they cast away their armour, drag their weapons, and flee. Some ran one hundred paces and then stopped, and some ran fifty places and then stopped.If those with fifty paces were to laugh at those with one hundred paces, then how would that be?"
Mencius and King Hui of Liang (孟子·梁惠王上) by Mencius (孟子). Warring States period.
Mencius was a Chinese philosopher, born in the state of Zou, not far from Confucius’ hometown. In his childhood, his mother did many things to ensure his scholarly success, such as moving their home next to a school so that he would be positively influenced at a young age.
During the Warring States period, Mencius served as an advisor in the State of Qi. In the context of this quote, King Hui asked him why the population of his state did not grow, despite being the only king who looked after his people, moving grain to regions suffering from famine. Mencius replied to the king’s concern with this quote, who then replied saying that those who ran fifty paces laughing at those who ran one hundred paces would not be permissible, as those who took fifty paces just simply did not get to one hundred paces yet, and that they were still fleeing just the same. Mencius then goes on to describe things that the king could personally do to build a prosperous state, indicating to him that if he didn’t blame the harvest and instead carried out those actions described, then all the people of the world would come to him.
Today, Mencius’s fifty/one hundred paces analogy in general serves as a reminder that often when we laugh at others’ mistakes, we are often making the same mistake, just maybe to a lesser extent.
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