3. 请 is not to be understood of Wan Chang, but as indicating the hesitancy and delicacy of the scholar to whom a gift is offered.
but having declined it in his heart, saying, ＇It was taken by him unrighteously from the people,＇ and then assigns some other reason for not receiving it;—is not this a proper course?" Mencius said, "When the donor offers it on a ground of reason, and his manner of doing so is according to propriety;—in such a case Confucius would have received it."