禪林寶訓 1.6

1.6

Mingjiao said: “When the Grand Historian read Mencius and reached King Hui of Liang asking, ‘How can you profit my state?’, he unwittingly set aside the scroll and sighed deeply: ‘Alas! Profit is truly the beginning of disorder.’ Therefore, the Master rarely spoke of profit, always guarding against its source. The source is the beginning. Between the honored, the lowly, the poor, and the rich, how is the harm of fondness for profit any different? For those in public office, if they take profit unjustly, the law falls into disorder. For those in private life, if they take profit through deceit, affairs fall into disorder. When affairs are in disorder, people contend with a sense of unfairness; when the law is in disorder, the common people harbor resentment and do not submit. Their rebellion, defiance, and fighting without regard for death or life burst forth from this. Is not profit truly the beginning of disorder? Furthermore, sages and worthies strictly admonished people to cast away profit and give precedence to benevolence and righteousness, yet in later generations, to what extent have there still been those who rely on profit to deceive one another and corrupt customs and damage teachings? How much more so if one openly displays the way of levying profit and practices it—how could one hope for the customs of the realm to be correct and not become frivolous and base?” (*Collection of Tianjin*)