子路与米

As a Chinese proverb goes: among the hundreds of benevolent1 acts, filial2 piety3 is the most important. It means that filiety4 to the parents is dominant among many virtues. If a person is not even dutiful to his parents, it is difficult to imagine that he is likely to love his country and people.

As the ancients said: "to love other people's parents and children as my own." We should not only be dutiful to our own parents, but to other elder people and love the youngsters.

Zi Lu was born in Lu Country at the end of Chunqiu period. He was very famous for his ability in handling government affairs as well as his bravery among Confucius5 's students. But he was very poor when he was young, living on coarse6 foods year in year out.

Once, his old parents wanted to eat some rice. But there was none left at home. What to do? Zi Lu thought that his parents' needs could be met by climb over several mountain ranges7 to borrow some from his relatives.

So, young Zi Lu climbed several mountain ranges and walked miles to take back a small sack8 of rice. When seeing his parents having their bowls of delicious rice, Zi Lu had forgotten his tiredness. He was praised by his neighbors as a brave and filial boy.

中国有句古语：“百善孝为先”。意思是说，孝敬父母是各种美德中占第一位的。一个人如果都不知道孝敬父母，就很难想象他会热爱祖国和人民。

古人说：“老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼”。我们不仅要孝敬自己的父母，还应该尊敬别的老人，爱护年幼的孩子。

子路，春秋末鲁国人。他在孔子的弟子中既以通政事著称，又以勇敢闻名。但子路小的时候家里很穷，长年靠吃粗粮野菜度日。

有一次，年老的父母想吃米饭，可是家里一点米也没有，怎么办?子路想到要是翻过几道山到亲戚家借点米，不就可以满足父母的这点要求了吗?

于是，小小的子路翻山越岭走了十几里路，从亲戚家背回了一小袋米，看到父母吃上了香喷喷的米饭，子路忘记了疲劳。邻居们都夸子路是一个勇敢而孝顺的好孩子。

注释

①benevolent adj．慈善的

②filial adj．子女的，孝顺的

③piety n．虔诚，孝行

④filiety n．孝顺

⑤Confucius n．孔子(公元前551～前479年，

中国春秋末期思想家、政治家、教育家，儒

家的创始者)孔门弟子

⑥coarse adj．粗糙的，粗鄙的

⑦range n．山脉，行列，范围，射程

⑧sack n．大袋，大袋之量，麻布袋