原文

有自己才有别人，也有别人才有自己。人人都懂这个道理，可是许多人不能行这个道理。本来自己以外都是别人，可是有相干的，有不相干的。可以说是“我的”那些，如我的父母妻子，我的朋友等，是相干的别人，其余的是不相干的别人。相干的别人和自己合成家族亲友；不相干的别人和自己合成社会国家。自己也许愿意只顾自己，但是自己和别人是相对的存在，离开别人就无所谓自己，所以他得顾到家族亲友，而社会国家更要他顾到那些不相干的别人。所以“自了汉”不是好汉，“自顾自”不是好话，“自私自利”，“不顾别人死活”，“只知有己，不知有人”的，更都不是好人。所以孔子之道只是个忠恕：忠是己之所欲，以施于人，恕是“己所不欲，勿施于人”。这是一件事的两面，所以说“一以贯之”。孔子之道，只是教人为别人着想。

可是儒家有“亲亲之杀”的话，为别人着想也有个层次。家族第一，亲戚第二，朋友第三，不相干的别人挨边儿。几千年来顾家族是义务，顾别人多多少少只是义气；义务是分内，义气是分外。可是义务似乎太重了，别人压住了自己。这才来了五四时代。这是个自我解放的时代，个人从家族的压迫下挣出来，开始独立在社会上。于是乎自己第一，高于一切，对于别人，几乎什么义务也没有了似的。可是又都要改造社会，改造国家，甚至于改造世界，说这些是自己的责任。虽然是责任，却是无限的责任，爱尽不尽，爱尽多少尽多少；反正社会国家世界都可以只是些抽象名词，不像一家老小在张着嘴等着你。所以自己顾自己，在实际上第一，兼顾社会国家世界，在名义上第一。这算是义务。顾到别人，无论相干的不相干的，都只是义气，而且是客气。这些解放了的，以及生得晚没有赶上那种压迫的人，既然自己高于一切，别人自当不在眼下，而居然顾到别人，自当算是客气。其实在这些天子骄子各自的眼里，别人都似乎为自己活着，都得来供养自己才是道理。“我爱我”成为风气，处处为自己着想，说是“真”；为别人着想倒说是“假”，是“虚伪”。可是这儿“假”倒有些可爱，“真”倒有些可怕似的。

为别人着想其实也只是从自己推到别人，或将自己当作别人，和为自己着想并无根本的差异。不过推己及人，设身处地，确需要相当的勉强，不像“我爱我”那样出于自然。所谓“假”和“真”大概是这种意思。这种“真”未必就好，这种“假”也未必就是不好。读小说看戏，往往会为书中人戏中人捏一把汗，掉眼泪，所谓替古人担忧。这也是推己及人，设身处地；可是因为人和地只在书中戏中，并非实有，没有利害可计较，失去相干的和不相干的那分别，所以“推”“设”起来，也觉自然而然。作小说的演戏的就不能如此，得观察、揣摩，体贴别人的口气、身份，心理，才能达到“逼真”的地步。特别是演戏，若不能忘记自己，那非糟不可。这个得勉强自己，训练自己；训练越好，越“逼真”，越美，越能感染读者和观众。如果“真”是“自然”，小说的读者，戏剧的观众那样为别人着想，似乎不能说是“假”。小说的作者，戏剧的演员的观察、揣摩、体贴，似乎“假”，可是他们能以达到“逼真”的地步，所求的还是“真”。在文艺里为别人着想是“真”，在实生活里却说是“假”、“虚伪”，似乎是利害的计较使然；利害的计较是骨子，“真”、“假”、“虚伪”只是好看的门面罢了。计较利害过了分，真是像法朗士说的“关闭在自己的牢狱里”；老那么关闭着，非死不可。这些人幸而还能读小说看戏，该仔细吟味，从那里学习学习怎样为别人着想。

五四以来，集团生活发展。这个那个集团和家族一样是具体的，不像社会国家有时可以只是些抽象名词。集团生活将原不相干的别人变成相干的别人，要求你也训练你顾到别人，至少是那广大的相干的别人。集团的约束力似乎一直在增强中，自己不得不为别人着想。那自己第一，自己高于一切的信念似乎渐渐低下头去了。可是来了抗战的大时代。抗战的力量无疑的出于二十年来集团生活的发展。可是抗战以来，集团生活发展的太快了，这儿那儿不免有多少还不能够得着均衡的地方。个人就又出了头，自己就又可以高于一切；现在却不说什么“真”和“假”了，只凭着神圣的抗战的名字做那些自私自利的事，名义上是顾别人，实际上只顾自己。自己高于一切，自己的集团或机关也就高于一切；自己肥，自己机关肥，别人瘦，别人机关瘦，乐自己的，管不着！——瘦瘪了，饿死了，活该！相信最后的胜利到来的时候，别人总会压下那些猖獗的卑污的自己的。这些年自己实在太猖獗了，总盼望压下它的头去。自然，一个劲儿顾别人也不一定好。仗义忘身，急人之急，确是英雄好汉，但是难得见。常见的不是敷衍妥协的乡愿，就是卑屈甚至谄媚的可怜虫，这些人只是将自己丢进了垃圾堆里！可是，有人说得好，人生是个比例问题。目下自己正在张牙舞爪的，且头痛医头，脚痛医脚，先来多想想别人罢！

英译

We create others, and others create us as well. This principle is accepted by all, but wisely observed by very few people. Besides us there are others; some are relevant to us, while some are irrelevant to us. We can call other people as“my-”, such as my parents, wife, children and friends, etc. They are the people in relation to us, and the rest have nothing to do with us. Combined with the related others, we form family, kith and kin; with uncorrelated others, we create social state. Maybe we.d like to think about ourselves only, however, we ourselves and others exist relatively. So leave others alone, we can not live either; in this way, we must take after family, kith and kin. Moreover, social state demands us to consider the people that are irrelevant to us. Therefore, “the man who cares for nobody”is not a great man; “caring only for oneself”is not nice words. The phrases“Self-interest”, “leaving others to sink or swim”as well as“only concern for oneself and ignoring others”describe the people that are not so good. So, Confucian ways are the doctrine of loyalty and consideration：loyalty demands people“to do unto others as you would be done”, consideration demands people“never to do unto others as you would not be done”. It addresses both sides of an issue, so we say“one principle runs through it all”. However, Confucian ways tell us to consider others.

Kinship has different degrees of closeness in Confucius, so when considering others, we should take different degrees of closeness into account. Family comes first, relative second, friends third, and irrelevant others go by the wayside. For thousands of years, it.s a obligation to have consideration for family while it.s more or less personal loyalty to think about others. Obligation means the matter within one.s duties while personal loyalty doesn.t belong to one.s own work. However, our obligation seems too heavy and we have been pressured by others so much. Then there came the time of the May 4th Movement. It was a time of self-liberation. People struggled to shake off the pressure from family and became independent in society. In consequence, we stood in the first place, higher than everything else. For others, it seemed that we had almost no duties at all. However, society remaking, nation remodeling even world changing turned out to be our own duties. Though it was duty, it was unlimited duty. Therefore you could perform or not perform, perform more or less, it all depended on you; anyhow society, nation and world are all abstract nouns. It is different from the situation that whole family are waiting at home for you to earn the bread. So, in fact everyone for himself comes first while giving consideration to society, nation and world are the most important only in name, which is our duty. Caring for others relevant or irrelevant is personal loyalty and courtesy. For those liberated people and the people who are born late and avoid the oppression, they are above everything else and others are out of their sight. So, it is really a charity for them to take others into account. Actually, in the eyes of those god.s favored ones, others seem to live for them and fend for them.“I love myself”becomes an ethos, and everyone think about himself. If someone cares for others, then he will be regarded hypocritical. But in my opinion, “hypocrisy”here looks more lovely while“I love myself”seems a little horrible.

In fact, there are no fundamental differences between thinking about others and thinking about yourself. Thinking about others, in fact, you are just putting yourself in others.position, or regarding yourself as others. However, we are quite unwilling to stand in others.shoes. At least, it looks not so natural than“I love myself”. This explains“hypocrisy”mentioned above and the“truth (I love myself)”in some degree. The“truth”isn.t necessarily good while“hypocrisy”isn.t necessarily bad either. When reading a novel or watching a drama, we usually break into a cold sweat or shed tears for the characters. We show concern for ancients. It also shows that we put ourselves in the place of others. As the characters only exist in the book and drama, there is no interests for us to fuss about and no need for us to consider its relevance or irrelevance. Therefore, it.s more natural for us to put ourselves into others.shoes. We are in different mood with writers and actors. Because they need to observe, conjecture and consider others.tone, identity and mind in order to achieve“verisimilitude”. Especially for acting, if we aren.t able to forget who we are for the time being, the performance can be very terrible. So we have to force ourselves and do some practice. The more we practice, the more vivid and more beautiful our performance will be, and it will be easier for us to attract readers.and audiences.interest. If“truth”means“nature”, the reaction of readers and audiences seems not“affectation”. It seems that authors.and actors.observation, conjecture and supposition are spurious. However they can reach the state of“verisimilitude”.“Picturesqueness”is still their pursuit. In the literature and art, we regard it as“verisimilitude”when authors and actors forget themselves and conjecture the artistic images. While in real life, when people think about others, we see it as“hypocrisy”. It.s probably the matter of interests. It is interests that matter, while“truth”and“hypocrisy”are just some good-looking facades. If you haggle over interests too much, you.ll be prisoned by yourself, said Anatole France. If you keep yourself prisoned for a long time, you will die. Fortunately, we can appreciate the available novels or dramas and learn to consider others.

Group life got developed since the May 4th Movement. Group, like Family was a concrete noun and different from social state, which sometimes was just an abstract noun. Group life turned the originally irrelevant others into relevant, and demanded and taught us to care for others, at least the broadly relevant others. The constraining force of Group got stronger, then we had to think about others. The belief of we ourselves coming first, higher than everything else seemed to lower its head gradually. However, the important time of Anti-Japanese War came. The strength we gathered for Anti-Japanese War was from the twenty-year development of Group life. Since the war of resistance Group life promoted too fast, inevitably, there existed some unbalanced aspects in development. Then we emerged again, and became higher than everything else. Now we don.t pay attention to“truth”or“hypocrisy”. We start to do selfish things in the name of sacred war-resistance; in name, we are considerate while in fact, we only care for ourselves. If we are higher than everything else, then our own groups or organs will be above all; we are rich, then our own organs will be rich. Others are poor, then their organs will be poor. We just need to take care of ourselves, others have nothing with us! If you are too poor to die, then you just deserve it! I believe that final victory will come, at that time, others will defeat the rampant and dirty selves. Over these years, we are honestly rampant, so others would like to press down our own head. Naturally, it.s not so good to think about others all the time. The person who is gallant and selfless and always worries what others are worrying about is indeed a hero, but such person is rare now. For us, the most common are perfunctory and compromising hypocrites as well as servile even flattering wretches. These people all throw themselves to the garbage heap! However, it has been wisely said that life is a matter of proportionality. At the moment, we are making threatening gestures like a beast of prey. So we can start with stopgap measures and think more about others first!