《古代寓言·曾参杀猪》（中英对照）

曾子这妻之市，其子随之而泣。其母曰：“女还，愿反为女杀彘。”

妻适市来，曾子欲捕彘杀之。

妻止之曰：“特与婴儿戏耳。”

曾子曰：“婴儿非也戏也！婴儿非有知也，待父母而学者也，听父母之教。今子欺之，是教子欺也。母欺子，子而不信其母，非以成教也。”

遂烹彘也。

——《韩非子》

Why Zeng Shen Killed the Pig

One day, when Zeng Shen’s wife was going to the market, their son cried and clamoured to go with her.

“Go back now!” she wheedled him. “When I get home we’ll kill the pig for you.”

Upon her return, she found Zeng Shen about to kill the pig. She hastily stopped him.

“I didn’t really mean it,” she protested. “I just said that to keep the boy quiet.”

“How can you deceive a child like that?” asked Zeng Shen. “Children know nothing to begin with, but they copy their parents and learn from them. When you cheat the boy, you are teaching him to lie. If a mother deceives her child, he will not trust her, and that is no way to bring him up.”

So he killed the pig after all.

Han Fei Zi