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战国战国 · 文 Prose

鱼我所欲也

Fish, Which I Desire

孟子

Mencius

名篇Masterpiece 诸子散文Philosophical prose of the masters 义利之辨The rectitude-versus-profit debate

鱼，我所欲也；
熊掌，亦我所欲也。
二者不可得兼，舍鱼而取熊掌者也。
生，亦我所欲也；
义，亦我所欲也。
二者不可得兼，舍生而取义者也。

Fish is what I want; bear's paw is also what I want. If the two cannot be had together, I will give up the fish and take the bear's paw.
Life is what I want; righteousness is also what I want. If the two cannot be had together, it is life I give up and righteousness I keep.

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Meaning

Mencius argues that when life and moral duty conflict, duty must win. He does not begin with a heroic rule but with a choice everybody recognises — fish or bear's paw — and then transfers it to the encounter of life and righteousness, so that the reader arrives at the higher claim by a step they have already taken. The passage anchors a right to die well in ordinary human preference rather than in exceptional virtue.

鱼，是我所想要得到的；熊掌，也是我所想要得到的。如果这两样东西不能同时得到，我就舍弃鱼而选取熊掌。生命，是我所想要得到的；道义，也是我所想要得到的。如果这两样东西不能同时得到，我就舍弃生命而选取道义。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Two questions, two answers. First, fish or bear's paw; then, life or righteousness; and in both cases the answer is the same, the greater of the two is kept. [Technique] The argument is an analogy built in two storeys. The lower storey is conceded instantly: no one needs to be persuaded that bear's paw beats fish. Having won that, Mencius moves to the higher storey and says that everyone already accepts the same logic there, only with something at stake. He never argues that righteousness is good in the abstract; he shows that the reader has already voted with his appetite. [Structure] The two halves mirror each other clause for clause, and each ends on a statement of refusal and choice. [Style] The sentences are short, colloquial, almost childishly plain, and the confidence of the tone does most of the work.

【白话串讲】孟子写《鱼我所欲也》：“鱼，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也。二者不可得兼，舍鱼而取熊掌者也”——“生，亦我所欲也；义，亦我所欲也。二者不可得兼，舍生而取义者也”——他讲舍生取义。【意象与手法】本文是孟子雄辩说理文的典范，核心手法是「类比推理」：以鱼与熊掌之取舍，类比生与义之取舍，把抽象的道义选择化为具体的日常选择。句式回环复沓，前后两组句子结构完全对称，声情并茂，如连珠炮发，令人无从辩驳【情感与主旨】全段以「舍生取义」立骨，确立儒家生死观与价值观的最高准则：当生命与道义不可兼得时，人应舍生取义。这既是孟子对士人立身之道的标举，也是中国文化中「杀身成仁」「舍生取义」精神的最早经典表述【名句点睛】「舍生而取义」四字为千古名训，与孔子「杀身成仁」并立为儒家两大价值信条；「鱼与熊掌不可兼得」更成为汉语中比喻取舍两难的最常用成语

Background

The passage comes from the ‘Gaozi part 1’ chapter of the Mencius, a set of exchanges with the thinker Gaozi on the goodness of human nature, written in the mid Warring States period. By then the states were competing on agriculture and war, and the language of profit — yi for righteousness, li for profit — was the vocabulary of the age; Mencius made it his business to say that the pursuit of gain without limit was the root of every evil in government. The chapter uses the plain fact that every man prefers life and fears death, and then asks what happens when the two conflict. The target is not the selfish but the compromise-minded, those who would keep their life and their reputation at once.

本篇选自《孟子·告子上》，是战国中期儒家大师孟子（约前372—前289）论辩说理的片段。孟子名轲，字子舆，邹国（今山东邹城）人，受业于子思门人，是孔子学说的嫡传与发扬者，被后世尊为「亚圣」。孟子生活的战国中期，诸侯争霸愈演愈烈，纵横捭阖、功利横流：秦国商鞅变法以耕战立国，各国皆以利相诱、以力相征，士人趋利忘义、朝秦暮楚者比比皆是。在此背景下，孟子周游列国，主张「仁政」「王道」，力辟杨朱「为我」与墨家「兼爱」，尤其痛恨「上下交征利」的社会风气。《告子》篇是孟子与告子等人就人性善恶问题展开的系列论辩，「鱼我所欲也」一段正是借人性「欲生恶死」的常识，论辩「义」之可贵与「舍生取义」之必要，矛头直指当时趋利避害、苟且偷生的世风。孟子之文以雄辩著称，善用譬喻与排比，此段以鱼、熊掌设喻，由浅入深，是孟子「善辩」的典型标本，也是中国思想史上义利之辨的经典文本。

Art

The whole passage is an exercise in building an argument out of a concession. Mencius begins from the most base of desires, eating, and takes the reader where he already stands; only at the second step does he say that the same choice reappears with life and righteousness, and the reader finds that he has been carrying the conclusion with him the whole time. The mirror construction does the rest: the same four-part shape twice over, same hinge phrase, same close. Nothing is proved and nothing is defended; the sentences simply proceed, and the certainty is in the rhythm. Colloquial particles, short subjects and a repeated verb make it sound like conversation, and the plainness is the colour of the argument: this is not a doctrine being imposed but a judgement the reader is overheard making. The final clause is the only place where the tone brightens, and it brightens into an absolute.

本文是《孟子》说理文的精粹片段，最突出的是「类比推理」的论证艺术与「回环复沓」的修辞之美。论证上，全段以「所欲」为枢纽构建双重类比：第一层以「鱼」与「熊掌」喻两种可欲之物，以「舍鱼取熊掌」确立「取重舍轻」的常情逻辑；第二层以「生」与「义」喻两种根本价值，以「舍生取义」确立「取义舍生」的至高原则。由物及人、由常情及大义，推理层层上推而毫无斧凿痕迹——既然人人皆知舍鱼取熊掌，则当义与生冲突时舍生取义，便如取熊掌般自然。这种「以子之矛攻子之盾」的类推法，是孟子雄辩术的核心武器，使对方无法在常情层面反驳，只能接受大义的结论。修辞上，两组句子完全对称：「鱼，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也」对「生，亦我所欲也；义，亦我所欲也」，「二者不可得兼」两出，「舍鱼而取熊掌者也」对「舍生而取义者也」，回环复沓、层层递进，如鼓点连敲，声情并茂。语言上全用口语化的判断句式（「……也」），明白晓畅而气势充沛，正体现孟子「言近而指远」的文章风格。

Allusions

The bear’s paw is the delicacy of the period’s cuisine and stands for the most tempting thing of its kind, which is why the choice reads as obvious; the comparison uses the most ordinary appetite to reach the least ordinary conclusion. The doctrine it states descends directly from Confucius, who said that the determined officer and the benevolent man will not seek to live at the cost of benevolence and will give their lives to have it complete; Mencius shifts the emphasis from benevolence to its companion, righteousness, and gives it the sharper name. The passage also depends on Mencius’s theory that the sense of right and wrong is present in everyone by birth, so that the refusal to compromise is not the discovery of a rare virtues but the recovery of what all men already possess. Later, this became the text on which literals were examined in the moral sciences.

「鱼我所欲也」一段的文化内涵，深植于儒家价值观与先秦思想论争的语境。其一，「熊掌」为古人最珍视的美味，《孟子》以「鱼与熊掌」对举取喻，本于当时「八珍」饮食文化的常识，以最日常的食欲比喻引出最崇高的道义，是「极高明而道中庸」的思维典范。其二，「舍生取义」直承孔子「杀身成仁」（《论语·卫灵公》）的价值传统，孟子将其由「仁」扩至「义」，完成了儒家两大道德范畴的价值升格——仁是内在的德性，义是外在的准则，「舍生取义」成为「义」的最高实践形态，后世文天祥「人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青」正是此训的人格化。其三，此段的理论根基是孟子的人性论：后文「所欲有甚于生者，所恶有甚于死者，非独贤者有是心也，人皆有之」，主张「义」与「羞恶之心」为人之固有本性，故舍生取义不是少数贤者的专利，而是人人本具良知的显发，此即「性善论」在生死抉择上的运用。其四，「生亦我所欲」的坦率承认，体现儒家「重生」而不「苟生」的生死观：不讳言求生之欲，然义重于生，故不苟且偷生。这一义利之辨，成为此后两千年中国士人立身处世的最高准则。

Commentary

The passage has been read and re-read in every period since. The Neo-Confucians quoted it in their disputes between heavenly principle and human desire, Zhu Xi glossing the two greater wants as righteousness and the two lesser as food and life; the examination syllabus made it a set text on right and profit. Patriotic writers revived it in the twentieth century, Wen Tianxiang in 1283 and many others after him having lived the answer rather than quoted it. In literary history the prose is the more interesting survival: the fish-and-bear’s-paw comparison passed into the living language as a way of saying any forced either/or, and the sentence about giving up life for righteousness became the standard shorthand for the choice itself. It remains a set text partly because it is short and partly because it refuses to argue.

「鱼我所欲也」作为《孟子》名段，其思想与文学影响贯穿两千余年。思想史上，「舍生取义」与孔子「杀身成仁」并立，构成儒家价值论的生死两极，宋明理学更将其纳入「天理人欲之辨」的框架加以发挥：朱熹集注谓「所欲有甚于生者，义也；所恶有甚于死者，不义也」，使此段成为科举士子必读的义利教材。历代志士仁人莫不以此自励：南宋文天祥兵败被俘，从容就义，其《正气歌》「是气所磅礴，凛烈万古存」正是「舍生取义」的绝唱；明末史可法扬州殉国、夏完淳少年赴死，皆以「取义」为生命归宿。文学史上，此段以类比设喻、回环复沓的说理艺术著称，清代桐城派古文家奉《孟子》为文章正宗，姚鼐《古文辞类纂》录之；其「鱼与熊掌不可得兼」之喻，更进入全民语汇，成为比喻两难取舍的常用成语。现代以来，此段长期入选中学语文教材，作为议论文「类比论证」的经典范本；「舍生取义」亦被今人赋予民族气节与爱国精神的当代内涵，其价值早已超出儒家语境，成为中华民族精神的核心命题之一。

Prosody

Form Pre-Qin philosophical prose in the colloquial judgmental style of the Mencius, built on parallel and repeated argumentative cadences先秦诸子说理散文，口语化判断句式的复沓论证体

Rhyme There is no rhyme, but the closing words recur with extraordinary regularity: ‘what I want’ closes four lines running, and ‘cannot be had together’ and the two-fold closing clause each appear twice. The repeated endings are what give the passage its sing-song, memorable surface.本篇为说理散文，不押韵，但声情组织极有法度：全段以「也」「者也」为句尾主调，「所欲也」三字在四句句尾重出，「不可得兼」两次出现，「舍……而取……者也」两次出现，形成回环复沓的旋律，如歌谣般一唱三叹，声调顿挫而气势贯注。

Tone pattern The sentences are short and flat in pitch, like ordinary speech, with the seven-character line wedged in to slow the pace; the long closing clause is the only place where the voice steepens, and there it falls into a declaration. No question, no exclamation, nothing but flat assertion, and the steadiness is the point — the argument advances rather than insists.句式以短句判断句为主（「鱼，我所欲也」），句内停顿分明、声调平直，如日常对话般明白；「二者不可得兼」的七字句插于其间，加长节奏、造成顿挫；「舍生而取义者也」以长判断收束，语气决绝。全段无一处反问感叹，纯以平实笃定的陈述推进，愈显其理的不可动摇。

Reading note The passage is a demonstration of using sound to argue. Both halves are built out of the same mould, so that the second half sounds like the first and, in sounding like it, persuades: the reader hears the same sentence a second time and accepts the same conclusion. The short subjects and particles keep the whole thing at conversational speed even where the matter is largest, and the one long clause at the end breaks that speed like a gong. It is the earliest Chinese prose that sounds exactly like thinking.「鱼我所欲也」虽为散文，其节奏音韵却极具匠心，是先秦说理文「以声助辩」的典范。全段由两组完全对称的句式构成：「鱼，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也」与「生，亦我所欲也；义，亦我所欲也」——句尾同落「所欲也」三字，形成回环的旋律；「二者不可得兼」在两组中重出，如鼓点两击；「舍鱼而取熊掌者也」与「舍生而取义者也」又以同一句式收束两组，全段如一首对称的回文歌谣，声调在重复中层层推进。这种复沓并非修辞的游戏，而是论证的声化：每重复一次句式，类比就深入一层，读者的认同感也在旋律的重复中逐步固化——从承认舍鱼取熊掌，到接受舍生取义，中间只隔着一组句式。句式的「短」也极讲究：主语后一顿（「鱼，我所欲也」），判断词「也」字轻轻收尾，全句短促明快，如对话般平易，正合「言近旨远」的孟子文风；而「舍生而取义者也」的七字长句在短句群中突兀而出，节奏由急转缓、由轻转重，如重锤定音，把全段的论证夯实在「取义」二字上。朱熹称孟子之文「有风骨」，此段的复沓之音正是「风」的所在。

Line by line

鱼，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也。二者不可得兼，舍鱼而取熊掌者也。

Fish is what I want; bear's paw is also what I want. If the two cannot be had together, I will give up the fish and take the bear's paw.

鱼，是我想要的；熊掌，也是我想要的。如果两者不能同时得到，就舍弃鱼而选取熊掌。

Fish is what I desire; bear's paw is also what I desire. If the two cannot be had together, I would forsake the fish and take the bear's paw.

开头四句是全篇论证的基石，以最平常的食欲设喻，建立起「取重舍轻」的常情逻辑。「鱼，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也」两句结构完全对称，一「鱼」一「熊掌」、两「所欲」，以并列句式铺陈两种欲望，语气平缓，如话家常；「亦」字轻轻一点，将熊掌与鱼置于同等「所欲」的地位，为「不可得兼」的冲突张本。第三句「二者不可得兼」以「不」字否定了兼得之可能，把读者逼入取舍的两难；第四句「舍鱼而取熊掌者也」以「者也」的判断句式给出选择——舍轻取重，理所当然。四句的妙处在于：不说教、不空谈，先让读者承认「舍鱼取熊掌」的常识，为下文「舍生取义」铺平道路。一旦读者首肯此喻，便已在逻辑上输了一着：生与义的取舍，不过是鱼与熊掌取舍的放大版。以欲明义、以浅喻深，正是孟子辩术的高明所在。

The opening four lines are the argument's foundation, using the commonest appetite to set up the everyday logic of 'taking the weighty, giving up the light.' 'Fish is what I want; bear's palm is also what I want' two lines perfectly parallel, one 'fish' one 'bear's palm,' two 'what I want,' the parallel laying out two desires, the tone even, like household talk; the word 'also' lightly setting bear's palm and fish as equal 'wants,' priming the conflict of 'cannot be had together.' The third line, 'if the two cannot be had together,' the word 'cannot' negating the possibility of both, driving the reader into the dilemma of choice; the fourth, 'I would give up the fish and take the bear's palm,' a judgment sentence giving the choice - give up the light, take the weighty, as a matter of course. The four lines' genius: no sermon, no empty talk, first letting the reader grant the common sense of 'give up fish, take bear's palm,' paving the road for the later 'give up life, take right.' Once the reader grants this metaphor, he has already lost the logical round: the choice of life and right is but the enlarged version of fish and bear's palm. Using desire to reveal duty, the shallow to figure the deep, precisely Mencius' debating craft.

生，亦我所欲也；义，亦我所欲也。

Life is what I want; righteousness is also what I want.

生命，也是我所想要的；道义，也是我所想要的。

Life is what I desire; righteousness is also what I desire.

这两句是全段论证由物及人、由喻入义的关键转折。句式上与前两句「鱼，我所欲也；熊掌，亦我所欲也」完全同构，仅将「鱼」「熊掌」换成「生」「义」——同构句式暗示同构逻辑：生与义的冲突，正如鱼与熊掌的冲突；既然如此，取舍之道也应一以贯之。深一层看，「生，亦我所欲也」有重大的理论意义：孟子毫不讳言人对生命的欲求，承认「欲生恶死」是人之常情，这既符合常识，也为后文「舍生取义」的悲壮预留张力——正因为生是「所欲」，舍弃它才显出义的重量；若生本不足惜，则舍生不足称义。「义，亦我所欲也」则把「义」与「生」并列为「所欲」，使道义成为与生命同格的欲求对象，这是「性善论」的暗线——人心中本有对义的欲求，正如本有对生的欲求。两句以最平静的语气，完成了全段论证的承转，为「二者不可得兼，舍生而取义者也」的雷霆结论蓄足势能。

These two lines are the argument's key turn from thing to man, from metaphor to duty. In syntax perfectly isomorphic with the earlier 'fish is what I want; bear's palm is also what I want,' only 'fish' and 'bear's palm' changed to 'life' and 'right' - the isomorphic sentence hinting isomorphic logic: the conflict of life and right, like that of fish and bear's palm; the way of choosing should be one throughout. In depth, 'life is also what I want' has major theoretical meaning: Mencius never conceals man's desire for life, granting that 'wanting life, hating death' is human nature, at once true to common sense and priming the pathos of the later 'give up life, take right' - precisely because life is 'wanted,' giving it up shows the weight of right; if life were not worth the wanting, giving it up would prove nothing. 'Right is also what I want' sets 'right' and 'life' as equal 'wants,' making moral duty a desire on the same rank as life, the undercurrent of the 'theory of original goodness' - man's heart holds a desire for right as it holds a desire for life. The two lines, in the calmest tone, complete the argument's bridge, fully charging the thunderous conclusion of 'if the two cannot be had together, I would give up life and take right.'

二者不可得兼，舍生而取义者也。

If the two cannot be had together, it is life I give up and righteousness I keep.

如果两者不能同时得到，就舍弃生命而选取道义。

If the two cannot be had together, I would forsake life and hold fast to righteousness.

这十个字是全段的结论，也是儒家生死观的最高宣言，字字千钧。「二者不可得兼」与前文「二者不可得兼」重出，句式如一，而以「生」「义」取代「鱼」「熊掌」，重出的结构正是类比论证的锁钥：前后两个「不可得兼」遥遥相对，把读者的思维从食欲的取舍无缝衔接到生义的取舍。「舍生而取义者也」以「舍……取……」的对举句式收束，「舍生」二字石破天惊——生命是「亦我所欲」的至重之物，竟可舍弃，可见「义」之价值凌驾生死；「取义」二字确立归宿——人生终极的选择不是求生，而是取义。全句以判断句「者也」收尾，语气斩钉截铁、不容置疑。值得注意的是，孟子此语并非禁欲主义的轻生，而是价值排序的必然：义高于生，故二者冲突时舍生取义，天经地义，如舍鱼取熊掌般自然。这十字与孔子「志士仁人，无求生以害仁，有杀身以成仁」互为表里，共同铸成中华民族「舍生取义」的精神脊梁。

These ten characters are the passage's conclusion, and the highest declaration of the Confucian view of life and death, each word a thousand catties. 'If the two cannot be had together' repeated from the earlier line, the sentence as before, yet 'life' and 'right' replacing 'fish' and 'bear's palm'; the repeated structure is the lock of the analogical argument, the two 'cannot be had together' echoing from afar, carrying the reader's thought from the appetite's choice seamlessly to the choice of life and right. 'I would give up life and take right' closing in the paired 'give up... take...' construction, the words 'give up life' earth-shaking - life, the weightiest of 'what I want,' yet to be given up, showing right's value above life; 'take right' fixing the end - life's ultimate choice is not to live, but to take right. The whole line closing in the judgment 'would,' the tone clipped and beyond dispute. Note: Mencius' words are not the ascetic's scorn of life, but the necessity of value ranking - right above life, hence at the conflict give up life and take right, as natural as giving up fish for bear's palm. These ten characters, with Confucius' 'the resolved scholar and the humane man will not live to injure humaneness, but will destroy their lives to fulfill humaneness,' inwardly answering, together forge the spiritual backbone of the Chinese nation that 'gives up life for right.'

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Word focus

得兼 ‘To attain both at once’ — de, ‘to be able to’, jian, ‘to hold two things together’. It is the hinge of the passage: the two goods are not inherently incompatible, and it is circumstance that forbids them, so the choice is forced and therefore reasonable. The phrase appears twice, and that recurrence is what makes the small difficulty and the great one read as a single point. 「二者不可得兼」之「得兼」，是全段论证的逻辑枢纽，意谓得以同时拥有。「得」为能够，「兼」为同时占有（兼有、兼顾之兼），二字连用，写尽「两全其美」的渴望与「两难」的现实。此词之妙在于「兼」字：它预设了两种「所欲」本可并存的可能性——鱼与熊掌、生与义，皆非天生互斥，只是现实条件使二者不可「兼」得。正因「不可得兼」是外力强加的限制而非价值本身的冲突，取舍便成为必然且合理的选择，读者无从怨尤。两处「不可得兼」的重出，更使「兼」字成为全段的题眼：第一次「不可得兼」是常情的两难（鱼与熊掌），第二次「不可得兼」是生死的大难（生与义），同一句式、同一词汇，将小难与大难并置，由小见大，逻辑密不透风。后世「不可得兼」成为描写取舍两难的标准表达，「鱼与熊掌不可兼得」更化为成语，其源头正在此段。「兼」之一字，撑起了全段论证的结构。

舍生取义 To give up life and take righteousness — the four characters that have carried the Chinese ideal of moral integrity for two thousand years. The pair gave and take are decisive rather than passive: the death is chosen, not imposed, and that choice is the dignity of the act. 「舍生而取义」之「舍生取义」，是孟子创造并垂范千古的价值成语，意谓舍弃生命而保全道义。「舍」与「取」对举，一弃一取，动作决绝而方向明确；「生」与「义」对举，一为肉体存在，一为道德准则，价值高下立判。四字凝练如格言，其思想分量却极重：它把儒家的「义」推到与生命同格乃至超乎生命的高度，确立了中国文化中「义重于生」的最高价值排序。深一层看，此语暗含三层逻辑：一是「义」须以「生」为衬——正因生可贵，舍生才显义重；二是「取」字强调主动选择——舍生不是被动的牺牲，而是主动的取义，是人的尊严所在；三是「义」的内容可大可小，小至不食嗟来之食，大至殉国殉道，凡冲突处皆可「舍生取义」。此语与孔子「杀身成仁」并称，成为中华民族气节观的核心表达，文天祥、谭嗣同等皆以生命践之。四字之力，足以撑起一个民族的精神天空。