释鹿得人

一次，鲁国的卿大夫孟孙带随从进山打猎，家臣秦西巴跟随左右。打猎途中，孟孙活捉了一只可爱的小鹿，他非常高兴，便下令让秦西巴先把小鹿送回家中，以供日后玩赏。

秦西巴在回家的路上，突然发现一只大鹿紧跟在后，不停地哀号。那只大鹿一号叫，这里小鹿便应和，那叫声十分凄惨。秦西巴明白了，这是一对母子，他觉得心中实在不忍，于是便把小鹿放在地上。那母鹿不顾秦西巴站在旁边对自己有什么危险，一下冲到小鹿身边，舔了舔小鹿的嘴，两只鹿便撒腿跑进林子里，眨眼就看不见了。

孟孙打猎归来，向秦西巴要小鹿，秦西巴回答说：“我不忍心，于是将小鹿还了给母鹿。”孟孙听了非常生气，将秦西巴赶走。

过了三个月，孟孙的儿子到了念书的年龄，孟孙要为儿子找一位好老师。许多家臣都来向孟孙推荐老师，孟孙一一接见这些人，但他总觉得不是十分满意。正当孟孙闷闷不乐的时候，他突然想起了三个月前被自己赶出家去的秦西巴，心中豁然开朗，立即命人去寻找秦西巴，并把他请回家来，拜他为儿子老师。

他的车伕对孟孙的做法很不理解，他们问道：“秦西巴当年自作主张，放走了您所钟爱的鹿，他对您是有罪的，您现在反而请他来做儿子的老师，这是为什么呢？”

孟孙笑了笑说：“秦西巴有一颗仁慈的心。他对一只小鹿都生怜悯之心，又怎会忍心让我的儿子受到伤害呢？”所以说，与其机巧伪诈，还不如愚拙真诚。

 The Value of a Kind Heart

In Eastern China in the State of Lu, there was a high ranking officer named Meng Sun. One day Meng Sun took his entourage into the mountains to go hunting, and his household staff Qin Xiba followed along too. During the hunting trip, Meng Sun caught a lovely fawn alive. He was very happy. Meng Sun ordered Qin Xiba to take the fawn home so he could keep it as a pet to play with in the future.

On his way home, Qin Xiba noticed that there was a big deer followed him, and it kept crying. The big deer called, and the little faun would respond with a pitiful cry. Qin Xiba realized that they were mother and son, and he really could not bear it so he put the fawn down. The mother deer ignored Qin Xiba standing there and rushed to the side of her fawn, licked its face, and together the two deer ran away into the forest and disappeared.

When Meng Sun returned home, he asked Qin Xiba for the small faun. Qin Xiba replied: "I couldn’t bear to listen to them crying for each other so I returned the fawn to the mother deer." Meng Sun was very angry and sent Qin Xiba away.

After three months, Meng Sun started to search for a teacher for his son. Many family members come to Meng Sun to recommend teachers. One by one, Meng Sun disqualified them. He felt something was missing. Just when Meng Sun became depressed over the whole matter, he suddenly remembered that three months ago he let go of Qin Xiba. His heart suddenly opened up and straight away he asked people to look for Qin Xiba and made him his son’s teacher.

His driver did not understand Meng Sun's thinking and asked: "Qin Xiba let go of your fawn without your consent. Yet now you have asked him to be your son's teacher, and I just don’t understand." 

Meng Sun smiled and said, "Qin Xiba has a kind heart." He even had compassion for a fawn, so he cannot possibly harm my son.”

The moral of the story is that rather than being clever and insincere, it's better to be seen as foolish and sincere.

Translator: Yi Ming
Edited by Helen