孟母三迁的故事 Mencius’ Mother Moved Thrice

孟子 （约公元前372 一约公元前289），中国古代着名的思想家，教育家，他和孔子一样，是儒家学派的主要代表人物之一。孟子小时候，他的母亲为了让他有一个好的教育环境，曾经搬过三次家。刚开始，他们住在坟墓的附近，孟子经常喜欢模仿别人办丧事。孟母看到后认为那个地方不适合教育儿子，于是就带着孟子搬到市场附近。可是，孟子又模仿着做生意，孟母觉得那里也不适合教育儿子，于是又搬到一个学校旁边。从那以后，孟子就开始好好儿学习了，最后成为了有才德的圣人。如今的中国，很多父母也是这样，为了让孩子受到更好的教育，想了很多的办法，甚至从一个城市 搬到另一个城市，有的还出国陪读。这个故事说明，环境能改变一个人的爱好和习惯，创造一个好的环境对一个人的成长非常重要。

Mencius (c.372 B.C.-289 B.C.) was a famous thinker and educator of ancient China. Like Confucius, Mencius is also a major representative of the Ruist (Confucian) School. When Mencius was young, his mother had moved homes three times to find a good educational environment for him. At first, they lived near a graveyard, where Mencius constantly imitated people who were holding funerals. Seeing this, his mother believed that the place wasn’t good for her son’s education, so she moved with Mencius to a place near the market. However, Mencius began to imitate doing business there, which made his mother think it wasn’t a good place for him either, so she moved again, this time near a school. Henceforth, Mencius studied hard and became a sage at last. In China today, many parents, also like Mencius’ mother, try every way to provide better education for their children, some have even moved to a different city, or taken their children overseas accompanying them while they are going to school there. The story of “Mencius” Mother Moved Thrice” tells us that the environment can change one’s behaviors and habits and having a good environment is very important to one’s development.