Mencius (Selections)  From a translation by Charles Muller. The selections here are used by his permission. They are from his page: http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/contao/mencius.htm   Updated: 2000/06/04

Another translation Van Norden of most of these passages with commentary can be found at http://faculty.vassar.edu/~brvannor/mengzi.html 

1A:4 King Hui of Liang said: "I would like to quietly receive your instruction."

Mencius said: "Is there any difference between killing a man with a stick or a sword?"

The King replied: "No difference."

Mencius said: "Is there any difference between doing it with a sword and doing it with government?"

"No difference" was the reply.

Mencius said: "There are loads of fat meat in your kitchen while the people in the countryside are dying of starvation. Animals are even eating people. Now, men despise animals who feed on each other. And you say you want to be 'the parent of the people.' But in the actual handling of your government, you cannot even prevent animals from feeding on men. How can you be regarded as a 'parent of the people?'" "Confucius said: 'Wasn't the first fellow who made wooden images for burial with the dead remembered forever?' This is because he made images of men and used them for such a purpose. What memory shall there be of the man who made his people die of starvation?"

1A:7 King Hsüan of Ch'i asked: "Can give me your analysis of what happened between Duke Huan of Ch'i and Duke Wen of Ch'in?[* Two somewhat infamous rulers of the 7th century BC.*]"

Mencius answered: "None of Confucius' disciples talked about Huan and Wen, so I have no significant information on them. So since I can't talk about them, how about discussing kingship?"

The king said: "What kind of qualities are necessary for real kingship?"

Mencius said: "Take care of the people, and no one can oppose you."

The king said: "Is someone like me capable of taking care of the people?"

Mencius said: "Sure."

The king said: "How do you know?"

"I heard this story from Hu-ho: He said you were sitting up in the main hall and a man walked past the lower part leading an ox. You saw this and asked: 'What are you doing with the ox?' He replied: 'We are going to consecrate a bell with its blood.' You said: 'Let it go--I can't stand to see the agony on its face, like that of an innocent person going to execution!' The man then answered: 'Shall we forget the consecration of the bell?' You said: 'How can it be forgotten? Substitute it with a sheep!'" Mencius then added: "I don't know if this is a true story."

The king said: "It is."

Mencius said: "If you possess this kind of mind, you are capable of true kingship. The people all accused you of being cheap, but I am convinced that you really could not stand the sight of the ox."

The king said: "You are right. Yet the people really did think I was being cheap. But the truth is, even though Ch'i is a fairly small kingdom, how could I begrudge a lousy ox? I really couldn't stand to see the fear in its face, like that of an innocent man going to his execution. That's why I changed it for a sheep."

Mencius said: "You should not think it strange that the people thought you were stingy. You changed a large animal for a small one, so how could they know your real motivation? If you were really pained at its innocently going to execution, what's the difference between an ox and a sheep?"

The king laughed and said: "What was I really thinking? But I didn't change it because of the expense--no wonder the people have called me cheap!"

Mencius said: "You have not done wrong. What you did was an act of jen. You saw the ox, but had not seen the sheep. When it comes to animals, if the Superior Man has seen them while alive, he cannot stand to watch them die. If he hears their screams, he cannot stand to eat their meat. Therefore he stays away from the kitchen."

The king was pleased and said: "It is said in the Book of Odes: 'People have their minds, I fathom them.' What you have just said is exactly what happened with me. But when I sought within myself, I couldn't really see my own motivations. As you have shown me, there is compassion in my heart, but how can this be sufficient for kingship?"

Mencius said: "Suppose someone said this to you: 'I am strong enough to lift six hundred kilos, but not strong enough to lift a feather; my eyesight is sharp enough to analyze the tip of autumn down, but I cannot see a wagon load of firewood. Can you go along with this?"

"Of course not."

"Then isn't it quite odd that your compassion reaches to animals, but not down to the people? If the single feather is not lifted, it is because your strength is not used, and when the wagon-load of firewood is not seen it is because your vision is not used. The people's not experiencing your care is because your compassion is not used. Therefore your majesty's lack of true kingship is because of a lack of effort, not a lack of ability."

The king asked: "Can you clarify the difference between non-effort and inability?"

Mencius replied: "If it is the case of taking Mt. T'ai under your arm and leaping over the North Sea with it, and saying: 'I am unable', then this is true inability. If it is the case of snapping a branch off a tree for an elder and you say 'I am unable,' this is non-effort, it is not inability. Thus, your majesty's not having a kingly hold over the people is not in the category of taking Mt. T'ai under your arm and leaping over the North Sea.' It is the type of not breaking a branch. If you take care of you own elders, the common people will do the same for their elders. If you are kind to your young, the common people will be kind to their young--you will hold the kingdom in the palm of your hand. The Book of Odes says:

His example affected his wife.

It reached to his brothers,

Such that he could manage

His clan and his state.

This means that if you just extend your heart to all others, and extend your compassion, it will be enough to take care of all those in the continent. If you do not extend your compassion, you will not even be able to take care of your own wife and children. The Way in which the ancients have surpassed all others is none other than this: Their goodness extended through everything they did, and nothing more." "Now your compassion is sufficient to reach to animals, yet lacks the effectiveness to reach the people. Isn't that something? By weighing we know what is light and heavy. By measuring we know long and short. All things are like this, and especially the mind, so why don't you measure it, king? Nowadays you build up your armaments, endanger your soldiers and officers and instigate trouble with other heads of state. Does this give you pleasure?"

"No, how could I enjoy this? I do it to get what I really want."

Mencius said: "What is it that you really want?"

The king just smiled and kept his mouth shut.

Mencius continued: "Are all your rich and sweet foods not enough for your taste? Is your wardrobe of winter and summer clothes not enough for your body? Or do you not have enough fancy toys to satisfy your eyes? Or do you not have enough servants and concubines to come before you and satisfy you? All your numerous ministers can certainly get all these things for you, so how can you still want more of these?"

The king said: "No, I don't want these."

"Then it is obvious what it is you really want," said Mencius, "you want to expand your territory, make vassals of Ch'in and Ch'u, rule the Middle Kingdom, get control over the outlying tribes. Doing the kinds of things you have been doing to get what you want is like climbing a tree to catch fish."

"Is it that bad?"

"Even worse. If you climb a tree to catch fish, even though you won't catch anything, there will be no great calamity. But if you completely devote all of you energies to getting what you want in this way, you are sure to meet with disaster."

The king said: "Can you explain how?"

Mencius said: "If there is a war between Tsou and Ch'u, who do you think will win?"

"Ch'u will win."

"You are right, and that means that you know that a small state cannot go up against a large state, that a few cannot oppose many, that the weak cannot contend with the strong. The continental territories of one thousand square li are nine in number and Ch'i (your kingdom) only makes for one. If with one part you try to subdue the other eight, how is this different from Tsou's fighting Ch'u? Please reflect on this essential point." "Now if you initiate a government based on goodness, all the officials in China will want to come to your court; all the farmers will want to plow your fields; the merchants will want to store their goods in your marketplaces; all the travelers will want to go by your roads, and all the people in the land who are hassled by their rulers will want to come to you for help. If they feel this way, who will be able to stop them?"

The king said: "I am dull-witted, and unable to carry this out. Please help me clarify my will by instructing me. Even though I am not so sharp, I will try to do it."

Mencius said: "Only a shih is able to keep a steady mind without a steady livelihood. If the common people lack a steady livelihood, they cannot be secure. If they are not secure, there is nothing they will not do in terms of criminal, depraved and selfish acts. For you to follow them up and punish them once they have committed crimes in this situation is entrapment. How could a benevolent man rule and at the same time entrap his people?" "Therefore the intelligent ruler will regulate the livelihood of his people so that they have enough to support their parents and their own children. In good years they will eat their full, and in bad years they will never starve. After this you can goad them toward the good, because they will follow easily. As it stands now, you regulate the livelihood of the people in such a way that they do not have enough to take care of their parents or their children. They suffer even in the good years, and in the bad years they cannot escape death. All they can do is try to avoid starving to death, all the time fearing that they will not make it. What kind of free time will there be to cultivate propriety and Righteousness?" "If you really want to bring this about, you'd better get back to the basics. If mulberry trees are planted on plots of one acre, people in their fifties can wear silk. If you do not pull the men away for battle during the breeding times of your livestock, people in their seventies can eat meat. If the proper planting, cultivation and harvesting times are not missed, the family of eight that lives off a twenty-acre farm will not go hungry. Pay careful attention to education, teaching the Righteousness of filial piety and fraternity, and the gray-haired will not be seen in the streets carrying heavy burdens on their backs." "There has never been a case where the elderly wore silk and ate meat, and the black-haired people suffered from neither hunger nor cold, where the kingship was not genuinely respected."

2A:6 Mencius said: "All people have a heart which cannot stand to see the suffering of others. The ancient kings had this heart which could not stand to see the suffering of others, and, with this, operated a government which could not stand to see the suffering of the people. If, in this state of mind, you ran a government which could not endure people's suffering, you could govern the realm as if you were turning it in the palm of your hand."  "Why do I say all human beings have a heart which cannot stand to see the suffering of others? Even nowadays, if an infant were about to fall into a well, anyone would be upset and concerned. This concern would not be due to the fact that the person wanted to get in good with the baby's parents, or because s/he wanted to improve his/her reputation among the community or among his/her circle of friends. Nor would it be because he/she was afraid of the criticism that might result from a show of non-concern."  "From this point of view, we can say that if you did lack concern for the infant, you would not be human. Also, to lack a sense of shame and disgust would not be human; to lack a feeling of humility and deference is to be "in-human" and to lack a sense of right and wrong is to be inhuman." "The sense of concern for others is the starting point of jen. The feeling of shame and disgust is the starting point of Righteousness. The sense of humility and deference is the starting point of Propriety and the sense of right and wrong is the starting point of Wisdom." "People's having these four basic senses is like their having four limbs. Having these four basic senses and yet claiming inability to act on them is to cheat yourself. To say that the ruler doesn't have them is to cheat the ruler. Since all people have these four basic senses within themselves, they should all understand how to enhance and develop them. It is like when a fire just starts, or a spring first bubbles out of the ground. If you are able to develop these four basic senses, you will be able to take care of everybody within the four seas. If you do not develop them, you won't even be able to take care of your own parents."

6A:1 Kao Tzu said: "Human nature is like a willow tree (the wood of which is good for making vessels) and Righteousness is like the cups and bowls that are carved out of the wood. To make human nature to be jen and Just is like making the willow wood into cups and bowls."

Mencius said: "Can you make cups and bowls while keeping the nature of the willow? It is by destroying the willow that you make cups and bowls. If we destroy the willow to make cups and bowls, should we also destroy the human being to make jen and Righteousness? This kind of talk from you will certainly lead the people to see jen and Righteousness as anathema[a curse]."

6A:2 Kao Tzu said: "Human nature is like whirling water. If you let it out on the east side, it will go east. If you let it out on the west side, it will go west. Similarly, human nature has no predisposition for good or evil, just as water has no predisposition for east or west."

Mencius said: "It is true that water has no predisposition for east or west. But doesn't it have a predisposition for up and down? The goodness of the human nature is just like the downward tendency of water. Just as all water has a down-going tendency, all people have a tendency toward goodness." "Now you can splash water and make it fly over your head, or you can dam it and force it uphill, but these are after all, forcing it.You can push people into doing evil, but that is not their basic nature."

6A:6 Kung Tu-tzu said: "Kao Tzu says that human nature is neither good nor evil. Others say that human nature can be made good or evil. That is why when Kings Wen and Wu were in power, the people loved goodness, and when Yu and Li were in power, they enjoyed inflicting pain. "Still others say that some people are inherently good and some are inherently evil. Therefore, under a good ruler like Yao, there was such an evil man as Hsiang; and to such a bad father as Ku-sou, a good son Shun was born; and with a nephew of the senior branch as evil as Chou on the throne, such good uncles as Ch'i, Viscount of Wei, and Prince Pi Kan lived. "Now you say that human beings are inherently good. Then are all the others wrong?"

Mencius said: "When I say human beings are inherently good, I am talking about their most fundamental emotional qualities. If someone does evil, it is not the fault of their natural endowment. Everyone has the feeling of concern for the well-being of others; everyone has the sense of shame and disgust at their own evil; everyone has the sense to treat others courteously and respectfully; everyone has the sense of right and wrong. "The feeling of concern for the well-being of others is jen. The sense of shame and disgust is Righteousness; the sense to treat others with courtesy and respect is Propriety. The sense of right and wrong is Wisdom. "Jen, Righteousness, Propriety and Wisdom are not forced onto us from the outside. They are our original endowments--you have really not thought it through, have you? "Thus it is said: 'If you strive for it, you will gain it; if you ignore it, you will lose it.' Men differ in terms of actualization: some are double, some fivefold and some manifest it to an incalculable degree. This difference is because some are not able to fully develop their natural endowments. The Book of Odes says:

Heaven gives birth to all men

And each thing possesses its principle

When people maintain this norm

They come to love its splendid virtues.

"Confucius said, 'The writer of this poem certainly knew what he was talking about.' Therefore, wherever there is anything, there is a concomitant principle. When the people embrace the norms of goodness, they can enjoy its splendid virtues."

6A:8 Mencius said, "The greenery on Niu Mountain was once beautiful, but since it was near a large city, it was attacked by lumberjacks. How could it retain its beauty? Still, by breathing in the sunlight and rain, how could new buds and sprouts not appear? But then cattle and sheep came and fed themselves, and by the time they were done, it was completely barren. "If people saw this barrenness, they might have imagined that there had never been any greenery. How could the mountain be inherently like this? "In the case of people, how could they lack the mind of jen and Righteousness? But the daily damaging of the goodness of their mind is just like the lumberjacks on the mountain. Being chopped down day after day, how can it manifest its natural beauty? "One may breathe in fresh air day and night, but if you allow the enjoyment of evil doings with people to close in on you, the air gets thin, and your daytime activities stifle you. Because of this stifling, the fresh air is insufficient. Being insufficient, your goodness of mind is not nourished, and there will be little difference between you and the animals. People see our animalistic nature and assume that we have never had great endowments. How could this be our real nature? "Therefore, if it is properly nourished, there is nothing that will not grow. If it is not nourished, there is nothing that will not die. Confucius said: 'Use it and you will keep it; ignore it and you will lose it. No one knows the times of its coming or going, nor its location.' What else could he be talking about but the mind?"

A:10 Mencius said, "I like fish and I like bear's paw, but if I have to choose between them, I will let go of the fish and take the bear's paw. I like life and I like Righteousness. But if I have to choose between them I will let go of life and take Righteousness. I want life, but there are things more important to me than life. Therefore there are things that I won't do just to live. I hate death, but there are things that I hate more than death, and thus there are certain kinds of suffering that I won't avoid. "If you teach a man to value nothing more than life, then what means will he not use in order to save his life? If you teach people to hate nothing more than death, then what will they not do, in order to avoid death? "But there are some things that people will not do to save their lives and some things that people will not do to avoid death. This means that there are things more important to them than life, and more hateful to them than death. It is not only the worthy who have this capacity. All people have it, but the worthy are able to be consistent in it. "When a bowl of rice or a cup of soup lies between life and death, and you offer it in a nasty way, even a bum off the street will not accept it. If you kick it at him with your feet, even a beggar will not take it. "Yet a man will accept a huge sum of money without any consideration of propriety. What can the money add to his person? I can beautify my house, gain the favors of wives and concubines, or gain the attention of greedy acquaintances. Yet before, I would not receive a bowl of rice to save my life, but now I will accept lots of money for the beautification of my home, for the favors of wives and concubines or to give to greedy acquaintances. Was it also not possible to decline this?" "This is called 'losing one's original mind.'"