Continued...

1
Mencius said, 'Anciently, the establishment of the frontier-gates was to guard against violence.

2
'Nowadays, it is to exercise violence.' Mencius said, 'If a man himself do not walk in the right path, it will not be walked in even by his wife and children. If he order men according to what is not the right way, he will not be able to get the obedience of even his wife and children.' Mencius said, 'A bad year cannot prove the cause of death to him whose stores of gain are large; an age of corruption cannot confound him whose equipment of virtue is complete.' Mencius said, 'A man who loves fame may be able to decline a State of a thousand chariots; but if he be not really the man to do such a thing, it will appear in his countenance, in the matter of a dish of rice or a platter of soup.'

1
Mencius said, 'If men of virtue and ability be not confided in, a State will become empty and void.

2
'Without the rules of propriety and distinctions of right, the high and the low will be thrown into confusion.

3
'Without the great principles of government and their various business, there will not be wealth sufficient for the expenditure.'

1
Mencius said, 'The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest.

2
'Therefore to gain the peasantry is the way to become sovereign; to gain the sovereign is the way to become a prince of a State; to gain the prince of a State is the way to become a great officer.

3
'When a prince endangers the altars of the spirits of the land and grain, he is changed, and another appointed in his place.

4
'When the sacrificial victims have been perfect, the millet in its vessels all pure, and the sacrifices offered at their proper seasons, if yet there ensue drought, or the waters overflow, the spirits of the land and grain are changed, and others appointed in their place.' Mencius said, 'A sage is the teacher of a hundred generations:-- this is true of Po-î and Hûi of Liû-Hsiâ. Therefore when men now bear the character of Po-î, the corrupt become pure, and the weak acquire determination. When they hear the character of Hûi of Liû-Hsiâ, the mean become generous, and the niggardly become liberal. Those two made themselves distinguished a hundred generations ago, and after a hundred generations, those who hear of them, are all aroused in this manner. Could such effects be produced by them, if they had not been sages? And how much more did they affect those who were in contiguity with them, and felt their inspiring influence!' Mencius said, 'When Confucius was leaving Lû, he said, "I will set out by-and-by;"-- this was the way in which to leave the State of his parents. When he was leaving Ch'î, he strained off with his hand the water in which his rice was being rinsed, took the rice, and went away;-- this was the way in which to leave a strange State.' Mencius said, 'The reason why the superior man was reduced to straits between Ch'an and Ts'âi was because neither the princes of the time nor their ministers sympathized or communicated with him.'

1
Mo Ch'î said, 'Greatly am I from anything to depend upon from the mouths of men.'

2
Mencius observed, 'There is no harm in that. Scholars are more exposed than others to suffer from the mouths of men.

3
'It is said, in the Book of Poetry, "My heart is disquieted and grieved, I am hated by the crowd of mean creatures." This might have been said by Confucius. And again, "Though he did not remove their wrath, He did not let fall his own fame." This might be said of king Wan.' Mencius said, 'Anciently, men of virtue and talents by means of their own enlightenment made others enlightened. Nowadays, it is tried, while they are themselves in darkness, and by means of that darkness, to make others enlightened.' Mencius said to the disciple Kâo, 'There are the footpaths along the hills;-- if suddenly they be used, they become roads; and if, as suddenly they are not used, the wild grass fills them up. Now, the wild grass fills up your mind.'

Back to Top