【每週成語】
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成語：一毛不拔（YI MAO BU BA）: too stingy to pull out a hair; unwilling to sacrifice even a hair for the sake of others; parsimonious; very stingy; even unwilling to give one cent; as mean as a miser; to be tight as a drum ( consider the money as one’s life ) ; not to share a cent with others; not to give away even a hair; not to lift a finger to help others; to refuse to contribute a single cent; very sparing in spending money; not a cent would be part with.
出處：孟子盡心篇。
釋義：一毛指一根毫毛，同時也指一毛錢。二者都是比喻很少、不值錢的意思。用從成語諷刺自私自利極為吝嗇的人。
故事：這個成語出自孟子盡心篇。原文說，“楊子為我，拔一毛而利天下，不為也。”
楊子就是楊朱，字子居，戰國時代魏國人，是一位思想家。由於他的利己學說不受人重視，因此他的生平在歷史上留下很少。據說他是老子的學生，也有人說他出生在墨子之後。他的著作沒有流傳下來，只有從“列子”和“孟子”書中零星的引出一些。他的學說是“為我—自我主義”一切的一切都是為個人利益著想。這和墨子的學說兼愛恰成鮮明的對照。因為墨子的兼愛收到大家的歡迎，而“為我”收到民眾的鄙棄，所以墨子的學說流傳千年，而楊子的學說沉埋於污泥下。
一個毛是那麼的微小，可是它卻能造福天下，而楊子卻不願意用它來造福天下。在此情況下，我們可以知道楊子是一個多麼吝嗇的人。這樣的一個人有這樣的一種學說，當然被當代人所輕視。不過，作為一個成語，它是多彩多姿的，是含義很深的。“一毛”是極小，而“天下”是極大，二者對比，正好顯示出那種自私的深度。
用法：李四想成立一個慈善基金會，想向張三募款，王五對李四說，“別費力氣了，張三是一個
‘一毛不拔 ’的人。 ”
故事英譯：This idiom comes from the Chapter Dedication of the Book of Mencius. The original text is “Yang Zi, an Egoist, refused to do even pulling a hair that is benefiting the world.”
Yang Zi, also named Yang Zhu, styled Zi Ju, native of Kingdom Wei, was a ideologist in the Era of Warring States. Because of his egoism theory, people didn’t like him and didn’t consider his theory important therefore his life was less left in history. It’s said that he had been a student of Lao Zi; also said that he was born later that Mo Zi ( Mo Di). His writings had not been passed down, only some fragments of his works quoted in the books of Lie Zi and Mencius. His theory is “For Me—Egoism”, everything is considered for one’s own benefits, which is considered sharply with Mo Zi’s theory, that is to love universally without distinction. Because of that the Universal Love of Mo Zi is welcomed by people and the Egoism of Yang Zi is disliked by the public, Mo Zi’s theory has been passed down thriving for Thousands years while the theory of Yang Zi has been buried under the sewage sludge.
A hair is so tiny, even as tiny as a hair, but it can benefit the world; anyway Yang Zi wouldn’t give it to benefit the world. From this situation, we may know that what a stingy guy Yang zi was! Such a person with such a theory, he was of course should be looked down on by the contemporaries. But to be an idiom, its image is multicolored and its significance is profound. “A hair “is extremely small while “the world” is extremely huge, the comparison between both just showed the deep level of the selfishness.
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