Apart from some lecture from whatever moral authority, can you really point out why exactly honesty is good?
除了任何道德权威的一些讲座外，你真的能指出为什么诚实是好的吗？
To answer this question, let’s go back to ancient China. The Warring States. Chaos and turbulence. A determined philosopher who trekked across the kingdoms. Nope, not Confucius, but Mencius, a Chinese thinker whose importance to the Confucian tradition is second only to that of Confucius himself.
为了回答这个问题，让我们回到中国古代。 战国。 混乱和动荡。 一位跋涉穿越王国的坚定的哲学家。 不，不是孔子，而是孟子，一位中国思想家，他对儒家传统的重要性仅次于孔子本人。
Mencius saw the heart, the mind as the the nexus of philosophical activity and self-cultivation, the place where the divine, the political, the human, and the personal all intersect. So it makes sense for him to state that “诚者, 天之道也; 思诚者, 人之道也”, translating to, ”In essence, honesty is the path of nature, and seeking honesty is the path of being”.
孟子将心灵、思想视为哲学活动和自我修建的纽带，是神圣、政治、人类和个人交织的地方。 因此，他说“诚者，天之道也；思诚者，人之道也”是有道理的，翻译为“从本质上讲，诚实是自然的道路，寻求诚实是存在的道路”。
This saying, unlike other teachings throughout ancient philosophy, is not shrouded in mystique. It is not our charismatic old friend Diogenes with his lantern in broad daylight, “looking for an honest man”. We see the simple, elegant truth. It is a statement with dignity and compassion, highlighting honesty as the primary virtue, pursuit and disposition of people, to the point that they exemplify being. Across ethnicity, religion, and culture, honesty stands as one of the most distinguished virtues.
与古代哲学中的其他教义不同，这句话并没有被神秘所笼罩。 不是我们富有魅力的老朋友Diogenes在光天化日之下拿著他的灯笼，“寻找一个诚实的人”。 我们看到了简单、优雅的真相。 这是一个有尊严和同情心的声明，强调诚实是人们的主要美德、追求和性格，以至于他们体现了存在。 跨越种族、宗教和文化，诚实是最杰出的美德之一。
There is perhaps not a single more apt principle to live by in our times, as we scroll through our digitised profiles, conversations, flattering comments, and the endless propaganda, showering our cerebrum with blatant publicity stunts, with ludicrous excitement in the form of the newest Netflix reality TV show or the latest YouTuber drama.
在我们这个时代，也许没有比这更恰当的原则了，当我们滚动浏览我们的数字化个人资料、对话、奉承的评论和无尽的宣传时，用明目张胆的宣传特技浇灌我们的大脑，以最新的Netflix真人秀电视节目或最新的YouTuber戏剧的形式出现可笑的兴奋。
On the other hand, some could even argue that honesty is no longer on the “path of being”. It could merely be an attraction along that path; an attraction however beautiful, that tourists will only stop by for some time to appreciate, and then hop off to their next destination.
另一方面，有些人甚至可以争辩说，诚实不再在“存在之路”上。 它可能只是沿途的一个景点；一个无论多么美丽的景点，游客只会停留一段时间欣赏，然后跳下他们的下一个目的地。
Looking back, however ridiculous Diogenes’ attempt to seek honesty with candlepower may seem, it is exactly something we might just scroll to on our feed; some unexpected, attention-grabbing, sensational image, for us just to shrug off and then pry into yet another convoluted social media post.
回顾过去，无论第欧根尼斯试图用烛光寻求诚实似乎多么荒谬，这正是我们可能在饲料上滚动的东西；一些意想不到的、引人注目的、耸人听闻的图像，让我们只是耸耸肩，然后撬开另一个错综复杂的社交媒体帖子。
So, why exactly is this place, honesty, getting all the 5-star reviews on the path of being, especially by those, er, philosophers?
那么，确切地说，为什么这个地方，老实说，在存在的道路上获得了所有的五星评价，特别是那些，er，哲学家？
Well, just as how we learn to recognise good when we see evil, the importance of honesty precisely comes from the dangers of dishonesty.
好吧，就像我们在看到邪恶时如何学会辨别善一样，诚实的重要性恰恰来自于不诚实的危险。
Here again, we embarrassingly contradict ourselves. In daily life, we all transact and trade “dishonesty”, however simple or complex, insignificant or important, harmless or devastating.
在这里，我们再次尴尬地自相矛盾。 在日常生活中，我们都交易和交易“不诚实”，无论简单或复杂，无足道或重要，无害或毁灭性。
We are gripped by that which calls for submission, for self-censorship, for constant shifts in attitude, language and the degree to which we stay “honest” throughout our day-to-day life; we are gripped by things that reject the path of nature as naïve as rainbows and lollipops, irritating to the colonial settlers, and even dangerous as if a mystical cult.
我们被那些要求服从、自我审查、态度、语言和我们在日常生活中保持“诚实”的程度的不断转变所抓住；我们被那些拒绝自然道路的东西所抓住，这些事物就像彩虹和棒棒糖一样天真，让殖民定居者感到恼火，甚至像神秘邪教一样危险。
In contrast, it is clear that Mencius respected traditional, societal obligations, the “things” that tower above us all. Even so, rather than being self-contradictory, it is in fact much more coherent than simply rejecting all of society.
相比之下，很明顯，孟子尊重傳統的社會義務，尊重高於我們所有人的「事物」。 即便如此，它不是自相矛盾，实际上比简单地拒绝整个社会要连贯得多。
Brutal honesty is yet another extreme that could ultimately be scrolled past, scoffed at by another viewer. The path of seeking honesty is not one that people can really pose sexily in, add an enticing caption, and post to Instagram. While it is undeniable that mundane dishonesty (“It was a pleasure to meet you” / “I’m fine” / “I can finish this work tomorrow”), has become an inseparable part of ourselves, and that we all tread a rather narrow tightrope between societal expectations of dishonesty and honesty depending on convoluted principles, we can still participate in society willingly, and rationally.
残酷的诚实是另一个极端，最终可能会被其他观众嘲笑。 寻求诚实的道路并不是人们能够真正摆出性感的姿势、添加诱人的标题并在Instagram上发布的道路。 虽然不可否认的是，世俗的不诚实（“很高兴见到你”/“我很好”/“我明天可以完成这项工作”）已经成为我们自己不可分割的一部分，而且我们都在社会对不诚实和诚实的期望之间踩着一条相当狭窄的钢丝，这取决于错综复杂的原则，但我们仍然可以心甘情愿地、理性地参与社会。
Just as Mencius accepts nature as profound and unknowable, we can accept that our thinking may not always, or even the majority of the time, be reconcilable with our outside behaviour. Gradations from public to private, from insincere to authentic, from socially acceptable to deviant all contain subtleties that we can learn to appreciate.
就像孟子接受自然是深刻和不可知的一样，我们可以接受我们的思维可能并不总是，甚至大多数时候，与我们的外部行为不相调和。 从公共到私人，从不真诚到真实，从社会上可接受的到变态，都包含着我们可以学会欣赏的微妙之处。
As such, rather than emphasising only honesty in behaviour, wielding the word as a weapon to criticise and judge others for not following Diogenes in pissing on the streets, it is the most powerful tool for introspection. Rather than simply concerning ourselves with plagiarism, counterfeit products, identity theft, or our “dishonest” interactions and obligations, honesty should also be recognised as the foundation upon the search for being.
因此，它不是只强调行为上的诚实，而是将这个词作为一种武器来批评和评判他人不跟随第欧根尼在街上撒尿，而是内省的最有力工具。 与其简单地关注剽窃、假冒产品、身份盗窃或我们的“不诚实”互动和义务，不如将诚实视为寻找存在的基础。
Without it, there is the true danger of dishonesty; deceiving yourself. Even though we can accept shades of honesty in society, what is unacceptable is actually believing that “it will always be a pleasure to meet anybody in business”, that “I will perpetually be just fine as the strangers see it”, and that “I can definitely finish all work whenever needed.” If we cannot tell the difference between honesty in behaviour and in thinking, we allow our being to be dictated by beliefs in which we have little faith.
没有它，就有不诚实的真正危险；欺骗自己。 尽管我们可以接受社会上的诚实，但实际上不可接受的是相信“遇到任何做生意的人总是很高兴”，“我会像陌生人一样永远很好”，以及“我绝对可以在需要时完成所有工作。” 如果我们分不清行为诚实和思维之间的区别，我们就允许我们的存在被我们很少相信的信仰所支配。
We must imagine what straying from the path of being really means; the heart and the mind being entrenched by beliefs that are at war with the truth, the death of philosophical activity and self-cultivation, the death of the divine, the political, the human, and the personal.
我们必须想象偏离存在道路的真正含义；心灵和思想被与真理交战的信念所根深蒂固，哲学活动和自我锻炼的死亡，神圣、政治、人类和个人的死亡。
We can look below, looking clearly at the paths that we have taken and decide whether they have stayed true to us. After all, Mencius is confident in every one of us, in every one of us in achieving the human potential of good, whether or not we are sitting on our asses scrolling through the feed.
我们可以看看下面，清楚地看看我们走过的道路，并决定它们是否忠于我们。 毕竟，孟子对我们每个人都有信心，对我们每个人都有信心实现人类的潜力，无论我们是否坐在屁股上滚动浏览饲料。
