雜譬喻經 1.34

1.34

外國小人，事貴人欲得其意，見貴人唾地，競來以足蹹去之。有一人不大健勦，雖欲蹹之初不能得，後見貴人欲唾，始聚口時便以足蹹其口。貴人問言：「汝欲反耶？何故蹹吾口？」小人答言：「我是好意，不欲反也。」貴人問言：「汝若不反，何以至是？」小人答言：「貴人唾時我常欲蹹唾，唾纔出口眾人恒奪，我前初不能得，是故就口中蹋之也。」此喻論議時，要須義出口然後難也。若義在口、理未宣明便興難者，喻若就口中蹋之也。

In a foreign country, petty persons serving an eminent man wished to win his favour. Seeing the eminent man spit on the ground, they competed to come and step on it to rub it away with their feet. There was one person who was not very quick and agile; though he wished to step on it, he could never manage to do so. Later, seeing that the eminent man was about to spit, just as he gathered his mouth, [the servant] stepped on his mouth with his foot. The eminent man asked: "Do you wish to rebel? Why did you step on my mouth?" The petty person answered: "I had good intentions; I did not wish to rebel." The eminent man asked: "If you did not rebel, why did you go to this extreme?" The petty person answered: "Whenever you spit, eminent sir, I always want to step on the spit. But as soon as the spit leaves your mouth, the others always snatch the chance before me, and I can never get it. For that reason, I stepped on it right inside your mouth." This illustrates that during debate, one must wait until the proposition has left the mouth before raising an objection. If the proposition is still in the mouth and the principle has not yet been declared clearly, raising an objection is like stepping on it right inside the mouth.