Mencius

[Part of King Hui of Liang: I] Mencius went to see King Hui of Liang. The king said, "Venerable sir, since you have not counted it far to come here, a distance of a thousand li, may I presume that you are provided with counsels to profit my kingdom?" Mencius replied, "Why must your Majesty use that word 'profit'? What I am provided with, are counsels to benevolence and righteousness, and these are my only topics. If your Majesty say, 'What is to be done to profit my kingdom?' the great officers will say, 'What is to be done to profit our families?' and the inferior officers and the common people will say, 'What is to be done to profit our persons?' Superiors and inferiors will try to snatch this profit the one from the other, and the kingdom will be endangered. In the kingdom of ten thousand chariots, the murderer of his sovereign shall be the chief of a family of a thousand chariots. In a kingdom of a thousand chariots, the murderer of his prince shall be the chief of a family of a hundred chariots. To have a thousand in ten thousand, and a hundred in a thousand, cannot be said not to be a large allotment, but if righteousness be put last, and profit be put first, they will not be satisfied without snatching all. There never has been a benevolent person who neglected one's parents. There never has been a righteous person who made one's sovereign an after consideration. Let your Majesty also say, 'Benevolence and righteousness, and let these be your only themes.' Why must you use that word—'profit'?" Mencius, another day, saw King Hui of Liang. The king went and stood with him by a pond, and, looking round at the large geese and deer, said, "Do wise and good princes also find pleasure in these things?" Mencius replied, "Being wise and good, they have pleasure in these things. If they are not wise and good, though they have these things, they do not find pleasure. It is said in the Book of Poetry, 'He measured out and commenced his marvellous tower; He measured it out and planned it. The people addressed themselves to it, And in less than a day completed it. When he measured and began it, he said to them—Be not so earnest: But the multitudes came as if they had been his children. The king was in his marvellous park; The does reposed about, The does so sleek and fat: And the white birds shone glistening. The king was by his marvellous pond; How full was it of fishes leaping about!' King Wen used the strength of the people to make his tower and his pond, and yet the people rejoiced to do the work, calling the tower 'the marvellous tower,' calling the pond 'the marvellous pond,' and rejoicing that he had his large deer, his fishes, and turtles. The ancients caused the people to have pleasure as well as themselves, and therefore they could enjoy it. In the Declaration of Tang it is said, 'O sun, when wilt thou expire? We will die together with thee.' The people wished for Jie's death, though they should die with him. Although he had towers, ponds, birds, and animals, how could he have pleasure alone?" King Hui of Liang said, "Small as my virtue is, in the government of my kingdom, I do indeed exert my mind to the utmost. If the year be bad on the inside of the river, I remove as many of the people as I can to the east of the river, and convey grain to the country in the inside. When the year is bad on the east of the river, I act on the same plan. On examining the government of the neighbouring kingdoms, I do not find that there is any prince who exerts his mind as I do. And yet the people of the neighbouring kingdoms do not decrease, nor do my people increase. How is this?" Mencius replied, "Your Majesty is fond of war—let me take an illustration from war. The soldiers move forward to the sound of the drums; and after their weapons have been crossed, on one side they throw away their coats of mail, trail their arms behind them, and run. Some run a hundred paces and stop; some run fifty paces and stop. What would you think if those who run fifty paces were to laugh at those who run a hundred paces?" The king said, "They should not do so. Though they did not run a hundred paces, yet they also ran away." "Since your Majesty knows this," replied Mencius, "you need not hope that your people will become more numerous than those of the neighbouring kingdoms." "If the seasons of husbandry be not interfered with, the grain will be more than can be eaten. If close nets are not allowed to enter the pools and ponds, the fishes and turtles will be more than can be consumed. If the axes and bills enter the hills and forests only at the proper time, the wood will be more than can be used. When the grain and fish and turtles are more than can be eaten, and there is more wood than can be used, this enables the people to nourish their living and mourn for their dead, without any feeling against any. This condition, in which the people nourish their living and bury their dead without any feeling against any, is the first step of royal government." "Let mulberry trees be planted about the homesteads with their five mu, and persons of fifty years may be clothed with silk. In keeping fowls, pigs, dogs, and swine, let not their times of breeding be neglected, and persons of seventy years may eat flesh. Let there not be taken away the time that is proper for the cultivation of the farm with its hundred mu, and the family of several mouths that is supported by it shall not suffer from hunger. Let careful attention be paid to education in schools, inculcating in it especially the filial and congenial duties, and grey-haired men will not be seen upon the roads, carrying burdens on their backs or on their heads. It never has been that the ruler of a State, where such results were seen—persons of seventy wearing silk and eating flesh, and the black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold—did not attain to the royal dignity." "Your dogs and swine eat the food of people, and you do not make any restrictive arrangements. There are people dying from famine on the roads, and you do not issue the stores of your granaries for them. When people die, you say, 'It is not owing to me; it is owing to the year.' In what does this differ from stabbing a person and killing one, and then saying—'It was not I; it was the weapon?' Let your Majesty cease to lay the blame on the year, and instantly from all the nation the people will come to you." King Hui of Liang said, "I wish quietly to receive your instruction." Mencius replied, "Is there any difference between killing a person with a stick and with a sword?" The king said, "There is no difference." "Is there any difference between doing it with a sword and with the style of government?" "There is no difference," was the reply. Mencius then said, "In your kitchen there is fat meat; in your stables there are fat horses. But your people have the look of hunger, and on the wilds there are those who have died of famine. This is leading on beasts to devour people. Beasts devour one another, and people hate them for doing so. When a prince, being the parent of his people, administers his government so as to be chargeable with leading on beasts to devour people, where is his parental relation to the people? Zhongni said, 'Was he not without posterity who first made wooden images to bury with the dead?' So he said, because that person made the semblances of people, and used them for that purpose—what shall be thought of him who causes his people to die of hunger?" King Hui of Liang said, "There was not in the nation a stronger State than Jin, as you, venerable Sir, know. But since it descended to me, on the east we have been defeated by Qi, and then my eldest son perished; on the west we have lost seven hundred li of territory to Qin; and on the south we have sustained disgrace at the hands of Chu. I have brought shame on my departed predecessors, and wish on their account to wipe it away, once for all. What course is to be pursued to accomplish this?" Mencius replied, "With a territory which is only a hundred li square, it is possible to attain to the royal dignity." "If your Majesty will indeed dispense a benevolent government to the people, being sparing in the use of punishments and fines, and making the taxes and levies light, so causing that the fields shall be ploughed deep, and the weeding of them be carefully attended to, and that the strong-bodied, during their days of leisure, shall cultivate their filial piety, congenial respectfulness, sincerity, and truthfulness, serving thereby, at home, their fathers and elder brothers, and, abroad, their elders and superiors—you will then have a people who can be employed, with sticks which they have prepared, to oppose the strong mail and sharp weapons of the troops of Qin and Chu. The rulers of those States rob their people of their time, so that they cannot plough and weed their fields, in order to support their parents. Their parents suffer from cold and hunger. Brothers, wives, and children are separated and scattered abroad. Those rulers, as it were, drive their people into pit-falls, or drown them. Your Majesty will go to punish them. In such a case, who will oppose your Majesty? In accordance with this is the saying—'The benevolent has no enemy.' I beg your Majesty not to doubt what I say." Mencius went to see the King Xiang of Liang. On coming out from the interview, he said to some persons, "When I looked at him from a distance, he did not appear like a sovereign; when I drew near to him, I saw nothing venerable about him. Abruptly he asked me, 'How can the kingdom be settled?' I replied, 'It will be settled by being united under one sway.' 'Who can so unite it?'" I replied, "He who has no pleasure in killing people can so unite it." "Who can give it to him?" I replied, "All the people of the nation will unanimously give it to him. Does your Majesty understand the way of the growing grain? During the seventh and eighth months, when drought prevails, the plants become dry. Then the clouds collect densely in the heavens, they send down torrents of rain, and the grain erects itself, as if by a shoot. When it does so, who can keep it back? Now among the shepherds of people throughout the nation, there is not one who does not find pleasure in killing people. If there were one who did not find pleasure in killing people, all the people in the nation would look towards him with outstretched necks. Such being indeed the case, the people would flock to him, as water flows downwards with a rush, which no one can repress." The King Xuan of Qi asked, saying, "May I be informed by you of the transactions of Huan of Qi, and Wen of Jin?" ...

[Part of Gongsun Chou] Gongsun Chou asked Mencius, saying, "Master, if you were to obtain the ordering of the government in Qi, could you promise yourself to accomplish anew such results as those realized by Guan Zhong and Yan?" Mencius said, "You are indeed a true person of Qi. You know about Guan Zhong and Yan, and nothing more. Someone asked Zeng Xi, saying, 'Sir, to which do you give the superiority—to yourself or to Zilu?' Zeng Xi looked uneasy, and said, 'He was an object of veneration to my grandfather.' 'Then,' pursued the other, 'do you give the superiority to yourself or to Guan Zhong?' Zeng Xi, flushed with anger and displeased, said, 'How dare you compare me with Guan Zhong? Considering how entirely Guan Zhong possessed the confidence of his prince, how long he enjoyed the direction of the government of the State, and how low, after all, was what he accomplished—how is it that you liken me to him?' Thus concluded Mencius, Zeng Xi would not be Guan Zhong, and is it what you desire for me that I should do so?" Gongsun Chou said, "Guan Zhong raised his prince to be the leader of all the other princes, and Yan made his prince illustrious, and do you still think it would not be enough for you to do what they did?" Mencius answered, "To raise Qi to the royal dignity would be as easy as it is to turn round the hand." "So!" returned the other. "The perplexity of your disciple is hereby very much increased. There was King Wen, moreover, with all the virtue which belonged to him; and who did not die till he had reached a hundred years: and still his influence had not penetrated throughout the kingdom. It required King Wu and the Duke of Zhou to continue his course, before that influence greatly prevailed. Now you say that the royal dignity might be so easily obtained—is King Wen then not a sufficient object for imitation?" Mencius said, "How can King Wen be matched? From Tang to Wu Ding there had appeared six or seven worthy and sage sovereigns. The kingdom had been attached to Yin for a long time, and this length of time made a change difficult. Wu Ding had all the princes coming to his court, and possessed the kingdom as if it had been a thing which he moved round in his palm. Then, Zhou was removed from Wu Ding by no great interval of time. There were still remaining some of the ancient families and of the old manners, of the influence also which had emanated from the earlier sovereigns, and of their good government. Moreover, there were the Viscount of Wei and his second son, their Royal Highnesses Bi Gan and the Viscount of Ji, and Jiao Ge, all people of ability and virtue, who gave their joint assistance to Zhou in his government. In consequence of these things, it took a long time for him to lose the throne. There was not a foot of ground which he did not possess. There was not one of all the people who was not his subject. So it was on his side, and King Wen at his beginning had only a territory of one hundred square li. On all these accounts, it was difficult for him immediately to attain to the royal dignity. The people of Qi have a saying—'A person may have wisdom and discernment, but that is not like embracing the favourable opportunity. A person may have instruments of husbandry, but that is not like waiting for the farming seasons.' The present time is one in which the royal dignity may be easily attained. In the flourishing periods of the Xia, Yin, and Zhou dynasties, the royal domain did not exceed a thousand li, and Qi embraces so much territory. Cocks crow and dogs bark to one another, all the way to the four borders of the State: Qi possesses the people. No change is needed for the enlarging of its territory: no change is needed for the collecting of a population. If its ruler will put in practice a benevolent government, no power will be able to prevent his becoming sovereign. Moreover, never was there a time farther removed than the present from the rise of a true sovereign: never was there a time when the sufferings of the people from tyrannical government were more intense than the present. The hungry readily partake of any food, and the thirsty of any drink. Confucius said, 'The flowing progress of virtue is more rapid than the transmission of royal orders by stages and couriers.' At the present time, in a country of ten thousand chariots, let benevolent government be put in practice, and the people will be delighted with it, as if they were relieved from hanging by the heels. With half the merit of the ancients, double their achievements is sure to be realized. It is only at this time that such could be the case." Gongsun Chou asked Mencius, saying, "Master, if you were to be appointed a high noble and the prime minister of Qi, so as to be able to carry your principles into practice, though you should thereupon raise the ruler to the headship of all the other princes, or even to the royal dignity, it would not be to be wondered at—In such a position would your mind be perturbed or not?" Mencius replied, "No. At forty, I attained to an unperturbed mind." Chou said, "Since it is so with you, my Master, you are far beyond Meng Ben." "The mere attainment," said Mencius, "is not difficult. The scholar Gao had attained to an unperturbed mind at an earlier period of life than I did." Chou asked, "Is there any way to an unperturbed mind?" The answer was, "Yes. Beigong You had this way of nourishing his valour: He did not flinch from any strokes at his body. He did not turn his eyes aside from any thrusts at them. He considered that the slightest push from anyone was the same as if he were beaten before the crowds in the market-place, and that what he would not receive from a common person in his loose large garments of hair, neither should he receive from a prince of ten thousand chariots. He viewed stabbing a prince of ten thousand chariots just as stabbing a fellow dressed in cloth of hair. He feared not any of all the princes. A bad word addressed to him he always returned. Meng Shishe had this way of nourishing his valour: He said, 'I look upon not conquering and conquering in the same way. To measure the enemy and then advance; to calculate the chances of victory and then engage—this is to stand in awe of the opposing force. How can I make certain of conquering! I can only rise superior to all fear.' Meng Shishe resembled the philosopher Zeng. Beigong You resembled Zixia. I do not know to the valour of which of the two the superiority should be ascribed, but yet Meng Shishe attended to what was of the greater importance. Formerly, the philosopher Zeng said to Zixiang, 'Do you love valour? I heard an account of great valour from the Master. It speaks thus: If, on self-examination, I find that I am not upright, shall I not be in fear even of a poor person in his loose garments of hair-cloth? If, on self-examination, I find that I am upright, I will go forward against thousands and tens of thousands.' Yet, what Meng Shishe maintained, being merely his physical energy, was after all inferior to what the philosopher Zeng maintained, which was indeed of the most importance." Gongsun Chou said, "May I venture to ask an explanation from you, Master, of how you maintain an unperturbed mind, and how the philosopher Gao does the same?" Mencius answered, "Gao says, 'What is not attained in words is not to be sought for in the mind; what produces dissatisfaction in the mind, is not to be helped by passion-effort.' This last, when there is unrest in the mind, not to seek for relief from passion-effort, may be conceded. But not to seek in the mind for what is not attained in words cannot be conceded. The will is the leader of the passion-nature. The passion-nature pervades and animates the body. The will is first and chief, and the passion-nature is subordinate to it. Therefore I say, Maintain firm the will, and do no violence to the passion-nature." Chou observed, "Since you say—'The will is chief, and the passion-nature is subordinate,' how do you also say, 'Maintain firm the will, and do no violence to the passion-nature?'" Mencius replied, "When it is the will alone which is active, it moves the passion-nature. When it is the passion-nature alone which is active, it moves the will. For instance now, in the case of a person falling or running, that is from the passion-nature, and yet it moves the mind." "I venture to ask," said Chou again, "wherein you, Master, surpass Gao." Mencius told him, "I understand words. I am skilful in nourishing my vast, flowing passion-nature." Chou pursued, "I venture to ask what you mean by your vast, flowing passion-nature?" "The reply was, 'It is difficult to describe it. This is the passion-nature: It is exceedingly great, and exceedingly strong. Being nourished by rectitude, and sustaining no injury, it fills up all between heaven and earth. This is the passion-nature: It is the mate and assistant of righteousness and reason. Without it, one is in a state of starvation. It is produced by the accumulation of righteous deeds; it is not to be obtained by incidental acts of righteousness. If the mind does not feel complacency in the conduct, the nature becomes starved. I therefore said, Gao has never understood righteousness, because he makes it something external. There must be the constant practice of this righteousness, but without the object of thereby nourishing the passion-nature. Let not the mind forget its work, but let there be no assisting the growth of that nature. Let us not be like the person of Song. There was a person of Song, who was grieved that his growing corn was not longer, and so he pulled it up. Having done this, he returned home, looking very stupid, and said to his people, "I am tired to-day. I have been helping the corn to grow long." His son ran to look at it, and found the corn all withered. There are few in the world, who do not deal with their passion-nature, as if they were assisting the corn to grow long. Some indeed consider it of no benefit to them, and let it alone—they do not weed their corn. They who assist it to grow long, pull out their corn. What they do is not only of no benefit to the nature, but it also injures it.'" Gongsun Chou further asked, "What do you mean by saying that you understand whatever words you hear?" Mencius replied, "When words are one-sided, I know how the mind of the speaker is clouded over. When words are extravagant, I know how the mind is fallen and sunk. When words are all-depraved, I know how the mind has departed from principle. When words are evasive, I know how the mind is at its wit's end. These evils growing in the mind, do injury to government, and, displayed in the government, are hurtful to the conduct of affairs. When a Sage shall again arise, one will certainly follow my words." On this Chou observed, "Zai Wo and Zigong were skilful in speaking. Ran Niu, the disciple Min, and Yan Yuan, while their words were good, were distinguished for their virtuous conduct. Confucius united the qualities of the disciples in himself, but still he said, 'In the matter of speeches, I am not competent'—Then, Master, have you attained to be a Sage?" Mencius said, "Oh! what words are these? Formerly Zigong asked Confucius, saying, 'Master, are you a Sage?' Confucius answered him, 'A Sage is what I cannot rise to. I learn without satiety, and teach without being tired.' Zigong said, 'You learn without satiety—that shows your wisdom. You teach without being tired—that shows your benevolence. Benevolent and wise—Master, you ARE a Sage.' Now, since Confucius would not allow himself to be regarded as a Sage, what words were those?" Chou said, "Formerly, I once heard this: Zixia, Ziyou, and Zizhang had each one member of the Sage. Ran Niu, the disciple Min, and Yan Yuan had all the members, but in small proportions. I venture to ask: With which of these are you pleased to rank yourself?" Mencius replied, "Let us drop speaking about these, if you please." Chou then asked, "What do you say of Boyi and Yi Yin?" "Their ways were different from mine," said Mencius. "Not to serve a prince whom he did not esteem, nor command a people whom he did not approve; in a time of good government to take office, and on the occurrence of confusion to retire—this was the way of Boyi. To say 'Whom may I not serve? My serving him makes him my ruler. What people may I not command? My commanding them makes them my people.' In a time of good government to take office, and when disorder prevailed, also to take office—that was the way of Yi Yin. When it was proper to go into office, then to go into it; when it was proper to keep retired from office, then to keep retired from it; when it was proper to continue in it long, then to continue in it long; when it was proper to withdraw from it quickly, then to withdraw quickly—that was the way of Confucius. These were all sages of antiquity, and I have not attained to do what they did. But what I wish to do is to learn to be like Confucius." Chou said, "Comparing Boyi and Yi Yin with Confucius, are they to be placed in the same rank?" Mencius replied, "No. Since there were living people until now, there never was another Confucius." Chou said, "Then, did they have any points of agreement with him?" The reply was, "Yes. If they had been sovereigns over a hundred li of territory, they would, all of them, have brought all the princes to attend in their court, and have obtained the throne. And none of them, in order to obtain the throne, would have committed one act of unrighteousness, or put to death one innocent person. In those things they agreed with him." Chou said, "I venture to ask wherein he differed from them." ...