[3A1] Duke Wen of Teng, Shizi,1 on his way to Chu, passed by Song in order to see Mencius. Mencius spoke about human nature being good, constantly commending Yao and Shun.2 When Shizi was returning from Chu, he again went to see Mencius.
Mencius said, “Do you doubt my words? The Way is one and one only.”
Cheng Jian said to Duke Jing of Qi, “They were men. I too am a man. Why need I be in awe of them?”
Yan Yuan3 said, “What kind of man was Shun? What kind of man am I? One who exerts effort will also be like them.”
Gongming Yi said, “King Wen is my teacher. How could the Duke of Zhou deceive me?”
“Now, given its length and breadth, Teng must be around fifty li—still large enough that it can make a good state. The Classic of Documents says: ‘If the medicine does not induce dizziness, it will not cure the illness.’”4
[3A2] Duke Ding of Teng5 died. Shizi said to Ran You.6 “Long ago in Song Mencius spoke with me, and what he said has always remained in my heart; I have never forgotten it. Now, to my sorrow, I come upon “the great affair.”7 Before I carry out this undertaking, I would like to send you to inquire of Mencius.”
Ran You went to Zou and asked Mencius. Mencius said, “Is this not good too? In carrying out the funeral arrangements for parents one exerts oneself to the fullest. Zengzi said, ‘When they are alive, serve them according to ritual; when they die, bury them according to ritual and sacrifice to them according to ritual.8 This is called “filial devotion.”’ I have not learned about the sacrifices pertaining to the various lords. But I have heard this: in the three years’ mourning, the garment of coarse cloth and the diet of rice gruel were shared in common by the three dynasties and extended to everyone from the Son of Heaven to the common people.”
Ran You returned and reported on his mission, and the prince decided that the three years’ mourning would be carried out. The family elders and the high officials did not concur in this and said, “None of the former princes of our ancestral house of Lu practiced this, nor did any of our former princes. For you to take it upon yourself to contravene what they did is unacceptable. Moreover, the Record says, ‘In the observance of mourning and sacrifice, one follows the elders.’”9 They said, “We have a source for this.”
The prince said to Ran You, “In the past I was never given to study but was fond of horsemanship and swordplay. Now, the family elders and officers do not consider me adequate. I am afraid that I may be unable to exert myself to the fullest in carrying out this ‘great affair of state.’ I would like you to speak with Mencius on my behalf.”
Ran You again went to Zou and inquired of Mencius. Mencius said, “This is so, but he cannot turn to anyone outside himself. Confucius said, ‘When the lord dies his heir gives over authority to the chief minister.10 He eats rice gruel. His face turns a deep black. As he approaches his position in the ceremony of mourning, he weeps. Among all the officers, none will dare not to grieve, following his example. What the one above loves, those below will care for still more deeply. ‘The Virtue of the noble person is like the wind, and the Virtue of small people is like grass. When the wind blows over the grass, the grass must bend.’11 Everything depends on the prince.”
Ran You returned and reported on his mission. The prince said, “It is true: everything does indeed depend on me.” For five months he dwelled in the mourning shed, issuing no orders or precepts. The officers and his clansmen acknowledged that he knew the rituals, and when it came time for the internment, people came from the four quarters to witness it. The mourners took great satisfaction from the sorrowfulness expressed in his countenance and the deep grief conveyed in his weeping.
[3A3] Duke Wen of Teng asked about governing the state. Mencius replied, “The people’s business may not be delayed. The ode says,
In the morning gather the grasses,
In the evening twist the ropes;
Be quick to climb to the housetop,
Begin to sow the hundred grains.12
The way of the people is this: that when they have a constant livelihood, they will have constant minds, but when they lack a constant livelihood, they will lack constant minds. 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. When a humane man is in a position of authority, how could the entrapment of the people be allowed to occur?13 Therefore, an exemplary ruler will be respectful, frugal, and reverent toward his subjects, and must take from the people only in accordance with the regulations. Yang Hu said, ‘One who would be wealthy will not be humane; one who would be humane will not be wealthy.’14
“The house of Xia mandated allotments of fifty mu and imposed the gong 
system. The Yin mandated allotments of seventy mu and instituted the zhu 
system. The Zhou mandated allotments of one hundred mu and adopted the che 
system. Actually, the tax amounted in each case to one part in ten. Che means to share; zhu means to help. Master Long15 said, ‘In managing the land system there is nothing better than the zhu, nor worse than the gong.’ With the gong system, the annual yield being averaged out over a number of years, the tax is rendered as a constant. In years of prosperity, when the grain crops are superabundant and more could be taken without causing any hardship, little is taken. In years of scarcity, when there is not enough left even to manure the fields, the full measure must be exacted. When one who is the father and mother of the people causes angry and sullen-looking people to have to borrow because, after a year of unremitting toil, they are still unable to nourish their parents—when he causes old people and young to be left to tumble over into drains and ditches—how can he be regarded as a father and mother to the people?
“Now, Teng assuredly has the practice of providing salaries for hereditary officials. Yet the ode says,
May the rain fall on our public fields,
So, too, on our private fields.16
Only in the zhu system is there the idea of public fields, and, viewed from this perspective, we may see that Zhou, too, practiced the zhu system.
“Establish the xiang, the xu, the xue 
, and the xiao 
so as to teach them.17 The xiang is for nourishing, the xiao for instruction, the xu is for archery. The Xia used the term xiao; the Yin used the term xu; the Zhou used the term xiang. All three used the term xue. And all were designed to clarify human relations. When human relations are clarified by those above, the little people will live in affection below. If a true king should arise, he will surely come and find in you an example, and you will be the teacher of a king. The ode says,
Zhou is an old state,
But its mandate is new.18
This speaks of King Wen. You must practice these things with all your strength; this will indeed serve to renew your state.”
The duke sent Bi Zhan to inquire about the well-field system. Mencius said, “Since your lord intends to practice humane government, and you have been selected by him for employment, he must put forth great effort. Now, humane government must begin with the setting of boundaries. If the boundaries are not set correctly, the division of the land into well-fields will not be equal, and the grain allowances for official emoluments will not be equitable. This is why harsh rulers and corrupt officials are prone to neglect the setting of boundaries. Once the boundaries have been set correctly, the division of the fields and the determination of emoluments can be settled without difficulty. Now, while the territory of Teng is narrow and small, it has both noble men and country people. Without noble men, there would be no one to rule the country people, and, without the country people, there would be no one to feed the noble men.
“Please allow that in the countryside one square of land out of nine should be used for mutual aid. In the capital, the people should assess themselves with a tax amounting to one part in ten. From the highest officers on down, everyone must have a gui field,19 and that gui field should be fifty mu. Remaining males should have twenty-five mu. Neither at the occasion of a death nor of a change of a residence should people leave the village. When those in a village who hold land in the same well-field befriend one another in their going out and their coming in, assist one another in their protection and defense, and sustain one another through illness and distress, the hundred surnames20 will live together in affection and harmony.
“A square li constitutes a well-field, and the well-field contains nine hundred mu. The central plot among them is a public field, and eight families each have private holdings of a hundred mu. Together they cultivate the public field, and only when the public work is done do they dare attend to their private work, this being what distinguishes the country people. This is the general outline, the details of which will be up to the ruler and you.”
[3A4] Xu Xing, who espoused the views of Shennong,21 came from Chu to Teng. Going directly to the gate, he announced to Duke Wen, “I am a man from distant parts, who has heard that you practice humane government and wish to receive land to live on so as to become your subject.” Duke Wen gave him a place to live. Xu Xing’s followers, numbering several tens, all wore clothing of unwoven hemp, made sandals, and wove mats for a living.
Chen Liang’s follower, Chen Xiang, along with his brother Xin, came with their ploughs on their backs from Song to Teng. They said, “Having heard that you practice sagely government and are also a sage, we wish to become your subjects.”
When Chen Xiang met Xu Xing, he was extremely pleased and, completely abandoning what he had learned before, became his disciple. When Chen Xiang met Mencius, he recounted the words of Xu Xing, saying, “The lord of Teng is truly an exemplary ruler; however, he has not yet heard the Way. The exemplary man works alongside the people and eats what they eat. He prepares his own meals, morning and evening, while at the same time he governs. Now, Teng has granaries and treasuries. This is for the ruler to burden the people in order to nourish himself. How can he be called an exemplary man?”
Mencius said, “Master Xu must only eat the grain that he has planted himself?”
“Yes.”
“And Master Xu must wear only cloth that he has woven himself?”
“No, Master Xu wears unwoven hemp.”
“Does Master Xu wear a cap?”
“He wears a cap.”
“What kind of cap?”
“His cap is plain.”
“Does he weave it himself?”
“No, he exchanges grain for it.”
“Why does Master Xu not weave it himself?”
“That would interfere with his tilling the soil.”
“Does Master Xu use an iron cauldron and an earthenware pot to cook his food, and does he till his fields with iron implements?”
“Yes.”
“Does he make them himself?”
“No, he exchanges grain for them.”
“To exchange grain for these various implements and utensils is not to burden the potter or the founder, nor could the potter and the founder, in exchanging their implements and utensils for grain, be burdening the agriculturalist. Then why doesn’t Master Xu become a potter and a founder so that he can obtain everything he uses from his own household? Why does he go about this way and that trading and exchanging with the various craftsmen? Why does Master Xu not spare himself the trouble?”
“The work of the craftsman definitely cannot be carried on simultaneously with the work of tilling the soil.”
“Then is governing the world unique in that this alone can be carried out simultaneously with the work of tilling the soil? There are the affairs of the great man, and the affairs of the small man. In the case of any individual person, the things that the craftsmen make are available to him; if each person had to make everything he needed for his own use, the world would be full of people chasing after one another on the roads. Therefore it is said, ‘Some labor with their minds, while others labor with their strength. Those who labor with their minds govern others, while those who labor with their strength are governed by others. Those who are governed by others support them; those who govern others are supported by them.’ The rightness of this is universally acknowledged in the world.
“In the time of Yao the world was not yet settled. The waters of the deluge overran their channels, and the world was inundated. Grasses and trees were luxuriant; birds and beasts proliferated. The five grains could not be grown. Birds and beasts crowded in on people, and the prints of the beasts and the tracks of the birds crisscrossed each other throughout the Middle Kingdom. Yao alone22 grieved anxiously over this. He elevated Shun to institute the regulations of government, and Shun employed Yi to manage fire. Yi set fire to the mountains and marshes and burned them, and the birds and beasts fled into hiding. Yu dredged out the nine rivers. He cleared the courses of the Qi and the Ta, leading them to flow to the sea, opened the way for the Ru and the Han, and guided the courses of the Huai and the Si, leading them to flow to the Yangtze.23 Only then could those in the Middle Kingdom [cultivate the land and] eat. During that time, Yu was abroad in the land for eight years. Three times he passed his own door but did not enter. Although he may have wanted to cultivate the fields, could he have done so?
“Hou Ji24 taught the people to sow and to reap and to cultivate the five grains. When the grains ripened, the people had their nourishment. It is the way of human beings that when they have sufficient food, warm clothing, and comfortable dwellings, but are without education, they become little more than birds and beasts. It was the part of the sage25 to grieve anxiously over this. He appointed Xie minister of education in order to teach people about human relations: that between parents and children there is affection; between ruler and minister, rightness; between husband and wife, separate functions; between older and younger, proper order; and between friends, faithfulness. Fangxun26 said,
Encourage them, lead them,
Reform them, correct them,
Assist them, give them wings,27
Let them “get it for themselves.”28
Then follow by inspiring them to Virtue.
How could the sages, who were so anxious about the people, have the leisure to till the soil? What caused anxiety for Yao was the thought of not getting Shun [as his successor]; what caused anxiety for Shun was the thought of not getting Yu and Gao Yao. The one whose anxiety is caused by a plot of one hundred mu not being properly cultivated is a farmer.
“To share one’s wealth with others is called kindness. To teach others to be good is called loyalty. To find the right man for the empire is called humaneness. Thus, to give the empire to someone is easy, whereas to find the right man for the empire is difficult. Confucius said, ‘Great indeed was Yao as a ruler. Only Heaven is great, and yet Yao patterned himself after Heaven. How vast, how magnificent! The people could find no name for it. What a ruler was Shun! How lofty, how majestic! He possessed the empire as if it were nothing to him.’29 As Yao and Shun ruled the empire, it could not have been done without their fully devoting their minds to it, but they did not devote themselves to tilling the fields.
“I have heard of using Xia customs to transform the Yi,30 but I have never heard of being transformed by the Yi. Chen Liang was a product of Chu. Delighting in the Way of the Duke of Zhou and Confucius, he came north to the central states to study it. Among those who studied in the north there was perhaps no one who surpassed him—he was what is called a valiant and distinguished scholar. You, Sir, and your brother, served him for several decades. But now that the teacher has died, you turn away from him.
“Formerly, when Confucius died, his disciples, after the three-year mourning period had passed, put their affairs in order and made ready to return home. On entering the presence of Zigong to take their leave of him, they looked at one another and wailed until they all lost their voices. Only then did they leave. Zigong returned, built himself a house on the site, and lived there alone for three more years.
“Another time Zixia, Zizhang, and Ziyou, believing that Youruo resembled the Sage, wished to serve him as they had served Confucius. They tried to persuade Zengzi to join them, but Zengzi said, ‘It may not be. What has been washed in the waters of the Jiang and Han and bleached in the autumn sun—how glistening is its purity! Nothing can be added to it.’ But now you turn your back on your teacher in order to become the disciple of this shrike-tongued barbarian from the south whose teachings are not those of the former kings. How different you are from Zengzi! I have heard of departing from a dark valley to repair to a tall tree; I have not heard of descending from a tall tree to enter a dark valley. In the ‘Songs of Lu’ it says:
The Rong and the Di he attacked,
And Jing and Shu he punished.31
“Whom the Duke of Zhou would attack, you would take as your teacher—certainly not a good change to make.”
[Chen Xiang said,] “If Master Xu’s Way were followed, there would not be two prices in the marketplace, nor would there be any duplicity in the state. If even a small boy were sent to the market, no one would deceive him. Equal lengths of cloth would be sold for a comparable price, as would equal weights of hemp and silk, and equal quantities of the five grains. This would be true as well of shoes of the same size.”
Mencius said, “For things to be unequal is the natural tendency of things. Some are worth twice, some five times, or ten, or a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand times more than others. For the master to try to make them the same would bring chaos to the world. If fine shoes and poor shoes were priced the same, who would make fine shoes? To follow the way of Master Xu would be to lead people to practice duplicity. How could one govern a state this way?”
[3A5] Yi Zhi, a Mohist, sought, through Xu Bi, to meet Mencius. Mencius said, “I certainly want to see him, but now I am still sick. When I have recovered from my illness, I will go myself to see him. Master Yi need not come here.”
Another day Yi Zhi sought again to see Mencius. Mencius said, “Now I am able to see him. If I do not correct him, the Way will not be made apparent. I will correct him. I have heard that Master Yi is a Mohist. In regulating funeral practices, the Mohist way is that of simplicity, and Master Yi is contemplating changing the world accordingly. What makes him think that, unless the deceased are buried in this way, they are not honored? Master Yi himself buried his parents in a lavish style, thus serving his parents in a way that he himself disparages.”
Master Xu informed Yi Zhi, who said, “According to the Confucian way, the ancients acted as if they were protecting an infant.32 What does this teaching mean? To me it means that one should love without distinctions but that the love begins with parents and extends from there.”
Master Xu told this to Mencius. Mencius replied, “Does Master Yi believe that a man’s affection for his brother’s child is just like his affection for the child of a neighbor? What he should have taken from the teaching [he cited] is that, if a child crawling toward a well is about to fall in, this is not the fault of the child. Heaven, in giving birth to living beings, causes them to have one root, while Master Yi supposes they have two roots.33
Now, in high antiquity there were some who did not bury their parents. When their parents died, they picked them up and cast them into a ditch. Another day, when they passed by, they saw that they were being devoured by foxes and wildcats and bitten by flies and gnats. Sweat broke out on their foreheads, and they averted their eyes to avoid the sight. The sweat was not because of what others would think but was an expression in their faces and eyes of what was present in their innermost hearts.34 They returned home and brought earth-carrying baskets and spades to cover them over. Burying them was truly right, and filial children and benevolent people also act properly when they bury their parents.”
Master Xu informed Master Yi of what Mencius had said. Master Yi reflected for a time and then said, “He has given me instruction.”
Notes
1. Duke Wen was a posthumous name; Shizi was the name by which he was known at the time he was heir apparent.
2. The sage-kings of antiquity. See also 5a.
3. Confucius’s favorite disciple.
4. “The Charge to Yue,” part 1, Classic of Documents, in Legge, Chinese Classics, 3:252. In this passage, the king asks the minister to be like medicine to him.
5. The father of Duke Wen.
6. His tutor.
7. The death of a parent.
8. This part of the quotation is attributed to Confucius (Analects 2:5).
9. The text referred to here is not known.
10. Cf. the Analects 14:43.
11. The last two sentences are close to a statement attributed to Confucius in the Analects 12:19.
12. Ode 154 (Legge, Chinese Classics, 3:226–33).
13. Mencius is recorded as having said almost exactly the same thing to King Xuan of Qi (see 1A7).
14. Yang Hu (or Yang Huo) is the person whose interactions with Confucius are recorded in the Analects 17:2 and, again, in Mencius 3B7. When Confucius declined to see Yang, out of dismay at his role as a minister to the Ji clan in the state of Lu, Yang sent him a pig, imposing on Confucius the ritual requirement to visit Yang to express his appreciation. Since Yang is represented as an unsavory and conniving character, commentators puzzle over the fact that he is quoted in the Mencius as having made what appears to be an appropriate statement about humaneness.
15. Master Long is identified by Zhao Qi only as “a virtuous man of antiquity.” He is quoted again in 6A7.
16. Ode 212. In James Legge’s translation, the lines read, “May it rain first on our public fields, / And then come to our private!” (Chinese Classics, 4:380–82).
18. Ode 235 (Legge, Chinese Classics, 4:427–31).
19. Officials received a gui 
field, the income from which was to be used to support the conduct of sacrifices.
20. That is, the people as a whole.
21. Shennong (the Divine Farmer) was associated with the agriculturalist tradition. For a revealing study of this tradition, see A. C. Graham, “The Nung-chia ‘School of Tillers’ and the Origins of Peasant Utopianism in China,” BOAS 42, no. 1 (1979): 66–100.
22. Yao alone because he was a sage-ruler who could anticipate the potential progress of human civilization.
23. The twelfth-century scholar Zhu Xi and, following him, James Legge have pointed out that there are problems with the geography here. Zhu Xi explains it as an error on the part of the recorder of Mencius’s words (Zhu Xi, Sishu jizhu, commentary on Mencius 3a:4; and Legge, Chinese Classics, 2:251).
24. Shun’s minister of agriculture. See also 4B29.
25. That is, Shun.
26. That is, Yao, who is referred to by this term in the Classic of Documents. Legge has doubts that this refers to Yao, though Zhu Xi, whose interpretation Legge usually follows, apparently has none.
27. This translation follows Legge, who, in turn, seems to follow the spirit of Zhu Xi’s commentary. An alternative translation would be “shelter them,” but the sense of enabling the people to become moral agents on their own fits in better with the last two lines of the quotation.
29. See the Analects 8:18, 19.
30. In a later time this might be expressed as “using Chinese customs to transform barbarians,” but in this context both the term “Chinese” and the term “barbarian” would be anachronistic.
31. Ode 300 (Legge, Chinese Classics, 4:620–30). The Rong and the Di were tribes to the west and the north, respectively. Jing refers to the area of the southern state of Chu and Shu to areas to the east of Chu. This poem is quoted again in 3B9.
32. The line is apparently quoted from chap. 9 of the “Commentary” section of The Great Learning; see ibid., 2:370.
33. David S. Nivison has written a revealing essay exploring the implications of this passage and this idea in particular (“Two Roots or One,” in The Ways of Confucianism: Investigations in Chinese Philosophy, ed. Bryan W. Van Norden, 133–48 [La Salle, Ill.: Open Court, 1996]).
34. Zhong xin 
, literally, “the middle heart,” or what is in the very center of a person’s being.