[1A1] Mencius met with King Hui of Liang.1
The king said, “Venerable sir, you have not considered a thousand li2 too far to come. Surely you have some means to profit our state?”
Mencius replied: “Why must the king speak of profit? I have only [teachings concerning] humaneness and rightness. If the king says, ‘How can I profit my state?’ the officers will say, ‘How can I profit my house?’ and the gentlemen and the common people will say, ‘How can I profit myself?’ Those above and those below will compete with one another for profit, and the state will be imperiled. One who murders the ruler over a state of ten thousand chariots surely will be from a house of a thousand chariots; one who murders the ruler over a state of a thousand chariots surely will be from a house of a hundred chariots.3 A share of a thousand in ten thousand or a hundred in a thousand is hardly negligible; yet, when rightness is subordinated to profit the urge to lay claim to more becomes irresistible. It has never happened that one given to humaneness abandons his parents, nor that one given to rightness subordinates the interests of his lord. Let the king speak only of humaneness and rightness. What need has he to speak of profit?”
[1A2] Mencius went to see King Hui of Liang. As he stood overlooking a pond, watching the geese and the deer, the king asked, “Do the virtuous also enjoy such things?”
Mencius replied, “Only the virtuous [truly] are able to enjoy these things. Those who are not virtuous, although they might have such things, cannot [truly] enjoy them.4 The ode says,
He began by measuring the spirit tower,
He measured it and planned it.
The common people worked on it,
Finishing before a day was out.
In beginning to measure he urged against haste,
Yet the people came as if they were his children.
The king was in the spirit park,
The doe lying down,
The doe glistening,
The white bird glittering.
The king was by his spirit pond,
How full it was with dancing fish!5
“King Wen used the strength of the people to build his tower and his pond, and the people found their delight and their joy in it. They called his tower ‘the spirit tower’ and his pond ‘the spirit pond’ and found joy in his having deer, and birds, and turtles. The ancients shared their joys with the people and it was this that enabled them to feel joy.
“‘The Declaration of Tang’ says,
O sun, when will you perish?
We will die along with you.6
“If the people wished to die along with him, although he had a tower and pond, how could he enjoy them alone?”
[1A3] King Hui of Liang said, “I, this solitary man,7 devotes his entire mind to the state. When the year is bad within the river, I transfer people to the east of the river and transfer grain to the area within the river. When the year is bad to the east of the river, again, I act accordingly. Look into the governments of neighboring states: there is no one as mindful as I, and yet people in the neighboring states do not decrease, nor do my people increase. Why should this be?”
Mencius said, “The king is fond of war; so please allow an analogy that derives from war. Drums rumbling, the soldiers having crossed weapons, some then flee, abandoning their armor and trailing their weapons behind them. Some stop after a hundred paces and some after fifty paces. How would it be if those who ran only fifty paces were to laugh at those who ran a hundred paces?”
The king said, “That would not do. It was only that they did not run a hundred paces, that is all. But they ran just the same.”
Mencius said, “If the king understands this, there is no reason to expect the people to be more numerous than they are in neighboring states. If the agricultural seasons are not interfered with, there will be more grain than can be eaten. If close-meshed nets are not allowed in the pools and ponds, there will be more fish and turtles than can be eaten. And if axes are allowed in the mountains and forests only in the appropriate seasons, there will be more timber than can be used. When grain, fish, and turtles are more than can be eaten, and timber is more than can be used, this will mean that the people can nourish their lives, bury their dead, and be without rancor. Making it possible for them to nourish their lives, bury their dead, and be without rancor is the beginning of kingly government.
“Let mulberry trees be planted around households of five mu,8 and people of fifty will be able to be clothed in silk. In the raising of chickens, pigs, dogs, and swine, do not neglect the appropriate breeding times, and people of seventy will be able to eat meat. With fields of a hundred mu do not interfere with the appropriate seasons of cultivation, and families with several mouths to feed will be able to avoid hunger. Attend carefully to the education provided in the schools,9 which should include instruction in the duty of filial and fraternal devotion, and gray-haired people will not be seen carrying burdens on the roads. The ruler of a state in which people of seventy wear silk and eat meat and where the black-haired people are neither hungry nor cold has never failed to become a true king.10
“The king’s dogs and pigs eat food intended for human beings and he does not know enough to prohibit this. On the roads there are people dying of starvation, and he does not know enough to distribute food. People die, and he says, ‘It was not I; it was the year.’ How is this different from killing a person by stabbing him and then saying, ‘It was not I; it was the weapon’? When the king ceases to place the blame on the year, then the people of the world will come to him.”
[1A4] King Hui of Liang said, “I would like a quiet moment in which to receive your instruction.”
Mencius replied, saying, “Is there any difference between killing a man with a stick or killing him with a blade?”
He said, “There is no difference.”
“And if it were done with a blade or through government, would there be any difference?”
He said, “There is no difference.”
Mencius said, “In your kitchen, there is fat meat, and in your stables fat horses. Yet the people have a hungry look, and out beyond, in the more wild regions, lie the bodies of those who have died of starvation. This is to lead animals to devour people.11 Now, animals devour one another, and people hate this about them. If one governs as father and mother of the people and yet is not deterred from leading animals to devour people, in what sense is he father and mother of the people? Confucius said, ‘The one who first made grave figures—was he not without posterity?’12 This was because he made human images for such a use. How then should it be with one who causes his people to die of starvation?”
[1A5] King Hui of Liang said, “Under Heaven there was no state stronger than Jin,13 as you, venerable sir, are aware. But when it came to my reign, Jin was defeated by Qi in the east, and my oldest son died there. In the west seven hundred li were lost to Qin, while in the south we were humiliated by Chu.14 Having incurred such shame, I wish, for the sake of the departed, to expunge it. How may this be done?”
Mencius replied, “With a territory of no more than one hundred li, one can become a true king. If the king bestows humane government on the people, reduces punishments, and lightens taxes, causing the plowing to be deep and the weeding thorough, the strong will be able to use their leisure time to cultivate filiality and brotherliness. Within the home they will serve their fathers and brothers; outside they will serve their elders and superiors. They can then be made to take up sticks and overcome the strong armor and the sharp weapons of Qin and Chu.
“Those other rulers lay claim to the time of their people, so that they are unable to plow or to weed and thus to nourish their parents. Their parents then suffer from cold and hunger; older and younger brothers are parted; wives and children are separated. These rulers bury their people and drown them. Were you to go and punish them, who would oppose you?15 Therefore, it may be said that the humane man has no enemy. May it please the king to have no doubt about this.”16
[1A6] Mencius saw King Xiang of Liang.17 On emerging he said to someone, “Seeing him from a distance, he does not appear to be a ruler of men; approaching him, one sees nothing imposing about him. He abruptly asked, ‘How can the empire be settled?’
“I replied: ‘It can be settled through unity.’
“‘Who is able to unite it?’
“I replied: ‘One who is not fond of killing people can unite it.’
“‘Who can give it to him?’
“I replied: ‘There is no one in the empire who will deny it to him. Does the king know the way of seedlings? If there is drought in the seventh or eighth month, the seedlings dry out. But when dense clouds gather in the sky and the rain falls in torrents the plants spring up and are revived. When this happens, who can stop them? Now, among the herders of men in the world there is none who is not fond of killing people. If there were one who was not fond of killing people, the people of the empire would crane their necks to look for him. If this were truly to happen, the people would return to him like water flowing downward, torrentially—who could stop them?’”
[1A7] King Xuan of Qi18 asked, “Would it be possible to hear about the affairs of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin?”19
Mencius replied, “The followers of Confucius did not speak of the affairs of Huan and Wen, and thus nothing about them has been transmitted to later generations. Not having heard, and having nothing to say on that matter, how would it be if I were to speak about being a true king?”
The king said, “What must one’s Virtue be like in order to become a true king?”20
Mencius said, “One who protects the people becomes a true king, and no one is able to stop him.”
“Could someone like me protect the people?”
“He could.”
“How do you know that I could?”
“I have heard Hu He say that while the king was seated in the upper part of the hall someone led an ox past the hall below [in the courtyard]. On seeing this, the king asked where the ox was going and was told that it was being taken to serve as a blood sacrifice in the consecration of a bell. The king said, ‘Spare it. I cannot bear its trembling, like one who, though blameless, is being led to the execution ground.’ Asked whether in that case the consecration of the bell should be dispensed with, the king said, ‘How can it be dispensed with? Substitute a sheep instead.’ Did this actually happen?”
“It did.”
Mencius said, “With such a mind21 one has what it takes to become a true king. Though the people all thought it was because the king grudged the ox, I know it was surely because the king could not bear to see its suffering.”
The king said, “That is so. The people must truly have thought this, but, although the state of Qi is small and narrow, how could I grudge a single ox? It was because I could not bear its trembling—like one who, though blameless, was being led to the execution ground—that I had a sheep substituted instead.”
Mencius said, “The king should not think it strange that the people assumed that he grudged the ox. How could they know why he substituted the smaller creature for the larger one? If the king had been grieved over its being led, blameless, to the execution ground, then what was there to choose between an ox and a sheep?”
The king smiled and said, “What kind of mind was this, after all? It was not that I grudged the expense, yet I did exchange the ox for a sheep. No wonder the people said that I grudged it.”
Mencius said, “There is no harm in this. This was after all the working of humaneness—a matter of having seen the ox but not the sheep. This is the way of the noble person in regard to animals: if he sees them alive, then he cannot bear to see them die, and if he hears their cries, then he cannot bear to eat their flesh. And so the noble person stays far away from the kitchen.”
The king was pleased and said, “When the ode says, ‘What other people have in their minds, I measure by reflection,’22 it is speaking about someone like you. When I tried reflecting, going back and seeking my motive, I was unable to grasp my own mind. Yet when you spoke of it, my mind experienced a kind of stirring. How is it that this mind of mine accords with that of a true king?”
Mencius replied, “Suppose someone were to report to the king, saying, ‘My strength, while sufficient to lift a hundred jun, is not sufficient to lift a feather.23 My sight, while sufficient to scrutinize the tip of an autumn hair, is not sufficient to see a cartload of firewood.’ Would the king accept this?”
“No,” he said.
“How do these examples differ from the case of kindness sufficient to extend to animals yet without its benefits reaching the people? Not lifting a feather is the result of not exerting one’s strength to do so; not seeing a cartload of firewood is the result of not employing his eyesight on it. That the people are not protected is because one does not exercise kindness toward them. Therefore, that the king is not a true king is because he does not do it; it is not because he is unable to do it.”
The king asked, “How can one distinguish between ‘not doing something’ and ‘not being able to do it’?”24
Mencius said, “If it were a matter of taking Mount Tai under one’s arm and jumping over the North Sea with it, and one were to tell people, ‘I am unable to do it,’ this would truly be a case of being unable to do it. If it is a matter of bowing respectfully to an elder, and one tells people, ‘I am unable to do it,’ this is a case of not doing it rather than a case of being unable to do it.25 And so the king’s failure to be a true king is not in the category of taking Mount Tai under one’s arm and jumping over the North Sea with it; his failure to be a true king is in the category of not bowing respectfully to an elder. By treating the elders in one’s own family as elders should be treated and extending this to the elders of other families, and by treating the young of one’s own family as the young ought to be treated and extending this to the young of other people’s families, the empire can be turned around on the palm of one’s hand.26 The ode says,
He set an example for his wife;
It extended to his brothers,
And from there to the family of the state.27
“This ode simply speaks of taking this mind and extending it to others. Thus, if one extends his kindness it will be enough to protect all within the four seas, whereas if one fails to extend it, he will have no way to protect his wife and children.28 The reason the ancients so greatly surpassed most people was nothing other than this: they were good at extending what they did. Now, your kindness is sufficient to extend to the animals but the benefits do not reach the people. Why do you make an exception in the case [of the people]?
“It is by weighing that we know which things are light and which are heavy, and by measuring that we know which are long and which are short. This is true of all things, and especially so with regard to the mind. May it please the king to measure his mind. When the king raises arms, endangers his subjects, and excites the enmity of the other feudal lords—does this perhaps bring pleasure to his mind?”
The king replied, “No. How could I take pleasure from this? It is just that I seek to realize what I greatly desire.”
“May I hear about what it is that the king greatly desires?”
The king smiled and did not speak.
Mencius said, “Is it that the king does not have enough rich and sweet foods to satisfy his mouth? Or enough light and warm clothing for his body? Or enough beautiful colors for his eyes to gaze upon, or enough sounds for his ears to listen to? Is it that he does not have servants enough to come before him and receive orders? The king’s ministers are sufficient to provide for all of this. How could the king’s desire be for any of these things?”
He said, “No, it is none of these.”
Mencius said, “Then what the king greatly desires can be known. His desire is to expand his territory, to bring Qin and Chu into his court, to rule the Central Kingdom, and to pacify the four Yi.29 But to pursue such a desire by acting in the way you do is like climbing a tree in search of a fish.”
The king said, “Is it as bad as that?”
“It is even worse. When one climbs a tree in search of a fish, though one gets no fish, no disaster will ensue. But if one acts in the way you do in pursuit of what you desire, and devotes the full strength of his mind to such endeavor, disaster is bound to ensue.”
“May I hear about this?”
“If the people of Zou were to go to war with the people of Chu, who, in the king’s opinion, would win?”
“The people of Chu would win.”
“Thus the small definitely cannot contend with the large, the few definitely cannot contend with the many, and the weak definitely cannot contend with the strong. Within the seas, there are nine territories of a thousand leagues square, and Qi is only one of them. What difference is there between one part attacking the other eight and Zou contending with Chu? Why not rather return to the root of the matter? If the king were to institute a government that dispensed humaneness, he would make all the officers in the world wish to stand in his court, all the tillers wish to till his fields, all the merchants wish to entrust their goods to his marketplaces, and all travelers wish to journey upon his roads. All those in the world who have grievances to express against their rulers would wish to lay their complaints before him. If you could bring this to pass, who could stop you from becoming a true king?
The king said, “I am unintelligent and incapable of following this advice. I should like you to assist my will and be clear in giving me instruction, so that, while not clever, I may endeavor to carry it out.”
“It is only a gentleman who will be able to have a constant mind despite being without a constant means of livelihood. The people, lacking a constant means of livelihood, will lack constant minds, and when they lack constant minds there is no dissoluteness, depravity, deviance, or excess to which they will not succumb. If, once they have sunk into crime, one responds by subjecting them to punishment—this is to entrap the people. With a person of humanity in a position of authority, how could the entrapment of the people be allowed to occur?30 Therefore, an enlightened ruler will regulate the people’s livelihood so as to ensure that, above, they have enough to serve their parents and, below, they have enough to support their wives and children. In years of prosperity they always have enough to eat; in years of dearth they are able to escape starvation. Only then does he urge the people toward goodness; accordingly, they find it easy to comply.
“At present, the regulation of the people’s livelihood is such that, above, they do not have enough to serve their parents and, below, they do not have enough to support wives and children. Even in years of prosperity their lives are bitter, while in years of dearth they are unable to escape starvation. Under these circumstances they only try to save themselves from death, fearful that they will not succeed. How could they spare the time for the practice of rites and rightness?
“If the king wishes to put this into practice, he should return to the root of the matter.31 Let mulberry trees be planted around households of five mu, and people of fifty will be able to be clothed in silk. In the raising of chickens, pigs, dogs, and swine, do not neglect the appropriate breeding times, and people of seventy will be able to eat meat. With fields of a hundred mu, do not interfere with the appropriate seasons of cultivation, and families with eight mouths to feed will be able to avoid hunger. Attend carefully to the education provided in the schools, which should include instruction in the duty of filial and fraternal devotion, and gray-haired people will not be seen carrying burdens on the roads. The ruler of a state in which people of seventy wear silk and eat meat and where the black-haired people are neither hungry nor cold has never failed to become a true king.
Notes
1. King Hui of Liang was known during his lifetime as Marquis Ying of Wei, or, after moving his capital to Daliang, in 361, as Marquis Ying of Liang. Having ruled from 370 to 319 B.C.E., he became known posthumously as King Hui of Liang.
2. A li 
is a unit of linear measure equal to around a third of a mile.
3. The chariot was used for military purposes and therefore the importance of a state was measured in terms of the number of chariots it possessed and could field.
4. As Mencius will go on to argue, only a virtuous person can enjoy such things with others and thereby enjoy them fully. He also invokes the idea, seen in texts like the Xunzi, that a ruler who does not share his joy with his people cannot remain secure in his enjoyment of such pleasures.
5. Ode 242. See James Legge, trans., The Chinese Classics, 5 vols. (Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press, 1970), 4:456–57. The ode refers, as Legge puts it, to “the joy of the people in the growing opulence and dignity of King Wen.”
6. From the Classic of Documents, in Legge, Chinese Classics, 3:175. The passage refers to the people’s desire for the death of Jie, known as the “bad last ruler” of the Xia dynasty. The apparent meaning is that the people were so anxious to see Jie’s death that they were willing to die themselves if this would ensure his death as well.
7. The Chinese term gua ren 
(literally, lonely or friendless person) was one used by rulers to speak of themselves. It implies a sense (or pretense) of self-depreciation. Hereafter, it will be translated simply as “I.”
8. A mu 
is a measure of area; 6.6 mu equal 1 acre.
9. Mencius here mentions two kinds of schools, the xiang 
and the xu 
. In 3A3, he refers to these and several more, explaining that xiang was a Zhou term, while xu was a term used in the Yin or Shang dynasty.
10. That is to say, one who attracts loyal subjects to him and thereby unifies the empire.
11. In 3B9, the preceding three sentences are attributed to Gongming Yi, identified by Zheng Xuan in his commentary on the “Jiyi” chapter of the Book of Rites (Liji 
) as a disciple of Zengzi.
12. These were wooden images in human form used in burials in the belief that they could perform service for the deceased. This, though, reinforces the deeply inhumane idea and encourages the practice of human sacrifices to the dead.
13. In the middle of the fifth century B.C.E., the state of Jin was divided up among the ruling families of Han, Zhao, and Wei and became known as the three Jin. King Hui is here referring to his state of Wei.
14. The chain of events referred to by King Hui began when Jin attacked Han and Han called for help from Qi.
15. The word translated “punish” here is zheng 
, which has the special connotation of a justified military campaign carried out by a legitimate authority. Compare 1B11, 7B2, and 7B4.
16. For Mencius’s judgment of King Hui, see 7B1.
17. The successor to King Hui, he ruled from 318 to 296 B.C.E.
18. King Xuan ruled in the powerful state of Qi from 319 to 301 B.C.E.
19. Duke Huan of Qi (r. 685–643 B.C.E.), one of the most powerful feudal lords of the seventh century, was considered the first of the “Five Hegemons,” and Duke Wen of Jin (r. 636–628 B.C.E.) was considered the second. Mencius’s statement in the ensuing passage that he has “heard nothing about” these hegemons is not to be taken literally. The reputation of neither ruler was entirely negative, but Mencius is making the point here that he prefers to talk about true kings (wang 
) rather than lord-protectors or hegemons (ba 
), whose claim to rule was believed by Confucians to be, morally speaking, more ambiguous.
20. The word translated “Virtue” here is de 
. It connotes the moral quality of a person’s character—good or bad. One with abundant, good Virtue enjoys a kind of moral charisma, which attracts and secures the support of others. For a study of this notion in early Chinese philosophy, see David S. Nivison, “‘Virtue’ in Bronze and Bone” and “The Paradox of ‘Virtue,’” both in The Ways of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy, ed. Bryan W. Van Norden, 17–43 (La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1996).
21. In speaking of “such a mind,” Mencius is obviously referring not to the king’s intellective or rational abilities but to his capacity for empathy.
22. Ode 198. Translation adapted from Legge, Chinese Classics, 4:342.
23. A jun 
was a traditional measure of weight, around 30 catties, or 40 pounds.
24. For a discussion of the issue raised in this and other passages in Mencius concerning the difference between not doing something and not being able to do it, see David S. Nivison, “Mengzi: Just Not Doing It,” in Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Mengzi, ed. Xiusheng Liu and Philip J. Ivanhoe, 132–42 (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002).
25. The interpretation of this line is influenced by the very helpful comments of Yang Bojun (Yang Bojun, 
, Mengzi yizhu 
[Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960], 24, n. 24).
26. What Mencius means by “extension” is a matter that has generated considerable scholarly debate. For a review of this literature, see Philip J. Ivanhoe, “Confucian Self-Cultivation and Mengzi’s Notion of Extension,” in Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Mengzi, 221–41.
27. Ode 240 is a poem about the morally influential mother of King Wen. See Legge, Chinese Classics, 4:446–48.
28. Mencius makes a similar claim in 2A6.
29. The four Yi were non-Chinese peoples.
30. Mencius is recorded, in 3A3, as saying the same thing, in almost exactly the same words, to Duke Wen of Teng.
31. What Mencius describes here as returning to “the root of the matter,” or to what is fundamental, repeats almost exactly what he said, in 1A3, to King Hui of Liang.